Hassan Rahimpour-Azghadi, an official with the Iranian Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, during an appearance on IRINN TV, Jan. 9, 2026. Photo: Screenshot

An Iranian official has called on the Islamic Republic to capture US President Donald Trump and said it is permissible to carry out terrorist attacks in US cities.

Hassan Rahimpour-Azghadi, an official with the Iranian Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, threatened Trump and the American people during an appearance last week on the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN) TV, a state-run news channel.

The comments from Jan. 9 were first reported and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

“Inshallah, we should do to Trump something similar to what they did to Maduro,” Rahimpour-Azghadi said, referring to the recent American operation to arrest ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro for his alleged role in trafficking drugs.

“Such an operation should be carried out against Trump …We are dealing with a savage individual and a savage regime, which extends its claws everywhere in the world,” the Iranian official continued.

In addition to calling for the capture of Trump, Rahimpour-Azghadi further made the point that what he views as illegal US actions now make it permissible to conduct terrorist actions “in every state and every city.”

Specifically, the Iranian official was referring to “arson attacks, burning people, gunning down people in the streets, running over a mother and her daughter with a car.” The US, he argued, has engaged in such actions in Iran, and therefore, “by law, it is now permissible to carry out any type of attack, whether on US soil, against US interests across the world.”

The US is “relaying to the world the message that they can do whatever they want,” he continued. “By the same token, everything goes. This impure man, this savage yellow dog, must pay the price, whether while in office or later on.”

Senior Iranian Official Hassan Rahimpour-Azghadi: Iran Should Capture Trump Like the U.S. Captured Maduro; “This Savage Yellow Dog Must Pay the Price”; Sabotage, Arson, and Car Ramming Can Be Carried Out in Every U.S. State and City pic.twitter.com/gZEPcgBwOR

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) January 11, 2026

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed Rahimpour-Azghadi as a member of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution in 2003. Then, in 2007, he was appointed to become a member of the Council of Representatives of the Supreme Leader in Universities.

The officials’ comments marked one of the latest examples of the Iranian regime’s repeated threats against the US. Chants of “death to America” are standard at anti-US rallies across Iran, and Khamenei has defended the slogan, saying people “will not stop saying ‘death to America’ as long as the US acts maliciously.”

The comments also came amid the Iranian government’s deadly crackdown on nationwide anti-government protests, which began on Dec. 28 over economic hardships but escalated into large-scale protests calling for the downfall of the country’s Islamist system.

The regime has responded with increasingly violent force on protests. An Iranian official told Reuters earlier this week that about 2,000 people had been killed in the protests, marking the first time authorities have given an overall death toll from more than two weeks of unrest.

The US-based HRANA rights group says it has so far verified the deaths of 2,677 people, including 2,478 protesters and 163 people identified as affiliated with the government.

However, thousands more people are feared dead.

“Based on available data and cross-checking information obtained from reliable sources, including the Supreme National Security Council and the presidential office, the initial estimate by the Islamic Republic’s security institutions is that at least 12,000 people were killed in this nationwide killing,” reported Iran International, a Persian-language news outlet.

With the regime imposing an internet blackout since last Thursday, verification of such figures has been difficult.