Israel shared intelligence with US on fresh Iranian plot to kill Trump
By: Abudu Olalekan
This is one hell of a story to drop on a Thursday evening.
Israel has passed specific intelligence to the United States claiming Iran has put together a fresh, active plot to assassinate President Donald Trump. CNN first reported the claim late on Thursday, citing two separate sources familiar with the warning.
It comes at a point where the already fragile 60 day ceasefire between the US and Iran looks like it could fall apart any day now.
One source said the warning was handed over last week. Another said US intelligence had been picking up vague signals about possible threats against Trump for a few weeks, but the Israeli warning was the first that outlined a specific, concrete plot.
Not everyone in Washington is fully convinced though. A number of American officials also believe part of the point of this intelligence being shared right now is to shape Trump’s thinking, just as he’s weighing whether to escalate military action against Iran.
No one has released the exact details of what the plot allegedly entails. And as of right now, US officials say they have not independently verified the intelligence. They also were not monitoring this specific plot at all before Israel notified them.
This is not an entirely new threat of course. American authorities have been warning for almost five years now that Iran would almost certainly try to target Trump at some point, in retaliation for the 2020 drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani.
The story was first broken by the Wall Street Journal. When asked for comment on Thursday, the White House would not confirm or deny the report, and instead referred reporters to comments Trump had made earlier that same day.
“They want to take out the US leader. Me,” Trump told reporters. “I’m on whatever list. I saw this morning I’m on every single one of their lists. And so far I guess I’ve been a bit lucky, but maybe that doesn’t last very long. These are evil, sick people. And we have to root out that cancer. That cancer. You know what you do? You cut out cancer early. And that’s the way I feel.”
It’s still not clear if Trump was talking specifically about this Israeli intelligence when he made those remarks.
Tensions have been spiking all week. At Khamenei’s funeral in Tehran over the weekend, crowds spent hours chanting openly for Trump to be killed.
In the background there is a lot of scepticism inside parts of the US intelligence community about this particular warning. Multiple sources told CNN that while there are very real general concerns about threats from Iran against current and former senior US officials, the Israeli report is also seen as part of a very deliberate campaign by Netanyahu to push Trump into a harder line on Iran.
Netanyahu has made no secret of the fact he hates the interim ceasefire deal Trump struck with Iran, and the two have also been clashing bitterly over the war in Lebanon. He spoke to Trump on the phone on Thursday, and is due to fly to Washington within the next two weeks for face to face talks.
For all the public rhetoric, things are a lot more complicated behind closed doors. Even after Trump said publicly on Wednesday that the ceasefire agreement with Iran was “over”, multiple administration officials confirmed that quiet diplomatic talks are still ongoing. Both sides are still apparently trying to hammer out a full nuclear agreement by the middle of August.
There was a very real moment of tension on Thursday night. Officials had made full preparations for strikes to be launched that evening if they decided it was necessary. Those plans were stood down at the last minute to allow more time for diplomacy.
Earlier that same day, aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, fighter jets were sitting on deck fully armed. Pilots ran emergency drill after emergency drill, in case they got the order to take off. The carrier’s commanding officer Dan Keeler told the crew directly that tensions were escalating faster than anyone had expected.
Even with all those preparations though, flight operations remained routine for the rest of the day and night.
No one knows what happens next.
Olalekan A. Abudu is a seasoned and dedicated News Journalist at REPORTERS ROOM, with over eight years of experience. He specializes in politics, climate change, health, and education, while also covering security, economic, and judicial issues. Committed to accuracy and balanced reporting, Olalekan exemplifies the principles of public-interest journalism.
