WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. _ Following President Donald Trump's Twitter threat to target cultural sites in Iran, an official in Tehran has disseminated a link to a webpage listing the Trump Organization's global real estate holdings, including the Mar-a-Lago club on Palm Beach.
The Sunday morning tweet was from the account of Hesameddin Ashena, an Iranian politician who serves as an adviser to President Hassan Rouhani. It included a decades-old quote from the late Ayatollah Khomeini, plus a link to a Forbes.com webpage, updated in September 2019, with the headline "What's Donald Trump really worth?"
Ashena's tweets followed Trump's threats to attack Iranian cultural sites if Tehran retaliates against Americans for the airstrike that killed Iran's top military commander, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, last week.
That warning from Trump came in the third of a trio of tweets the president fired off from Mar-a-Lago on Saturday evening in which he said he had a list of "52 Iranian sites" including "some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture."
On Sunday night, aboard the return flight to Washington, Trump reiterated his threat to strike Iranian cultural sites.
"They're allowed to kill our people. They're allowed to torture and maim our people. They're allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people," he said. "And we're not allowed to touch their cultural sites. It doesn't work that way."
The social media missive from Ashena did not contain an overt threat, or call anyone to commit a specific action.
The tweet contained a quote attributed to Khomeini, who was the spiritual leader of the 1979 revolution in Iran and ran the country until his death in 1989.
The quote read: "I tell the whole world that if the world wants to stand up to our religion, we will stand up against their whole world."
It also included a link to the Forbes.com webpage that calculated the worth of Trump's financial empire at $3.1 billion, and listed under various categories the Trump Organization's real estate holdings. Those include Mar-a-Lago and the Doral golf club and resort west of Miami, where Trump previously sought to hold this year's global G-7 summit.
An hour after the tweet with the Forbes.com link, Ashena tweeted that the Tehran government does not seek a conflict with the American people. Instead, the tweet said, Trump "will bear full responsibility" for the recent airstrikes.
The tweet read: "We have ZERO problems with the American people. We even achieved deals with previous US administrations. Our sole problem is Trump. In the event of war, it is he who will bear full responsibility."
As for potential threats to Trump's South Florida properties, local and federal law enforcement agencies declined comment specifically on the tweets on Monday.
"While the agency does not discuss the specifics of our protective operations, the U.S. Secret Service continuously assesses the threat environment surrounding all protectees and will adjust postures as necessary as part of the robust execution of our zero-fail mission," the Secret Service said in a statement.
The Federal Aviation Administration directed a reporter to law enforcement. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office deferred comment to Palm Beach Police and the Secret Service. The Coast Guard deferred to its parent, the Department of Homeland Security, which did not immediately respond.
NORAD, which manages the flight restrictions around Mar-a-Lago when the president is there, referred a reporter to the Defense Department, which referred to the White House, which did not immediately respond.
