President Trump has spent years living under the shadow of Iranian assassination threats. Now, according to multiple reports, that threat may have escalated again.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Israeli intelligence recently warned U.S. officials about what it described as a new Iranian plot targeting President Trump, a development that immediately intensified concerns inside Washington as tensions between Tehran, Jerusalem, and the United States continue to rise.
While details of the alleged plot have not been publicly released, the reported threat fits a pattern that has existed since January 2020, when Trump ordered the strike that killed Iranian terror mastermind Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force. Iranian officials, clerics, military figures, and state-controlled media have repeatedly vowed revenge ever since.
Speaking during the NATO summit in Ankara this week, Trump acknowledged the danger in unusually direct terms.
“They want to take out the US leader — me,” Trump said. “I’m on whatever list. I saw this morning I’m on every single one of their lists.”
The president added: “These are evil, sick people. And we have to root out that cancer. That cancer. You know what you do? You’ve got to cut out cancer early.”
The warning reportedly caught some U.S. officials off guard. According to subsequent reporting, the intelligence had not been previously tracked by American agencies and remains under review.
The report surfaced as the fragile ceasefire between Iran and the United States appears to be unraveling, with renewed military activity, attacks on commercial shipping, and escalating rhetoric from Tehran following the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei earlier this year.
Images from Iran this week only added fuel to the fire.
At funeral ceremonies and public gatherings, mourners were photographed carrying anti-Trump banners and chanting threats against the American president. One sign reportedly declared, “WE WILL KILL TRUMP,” while crowds were heard shouting, “I swear by the blood of the Supreme Leader, Trump, we will kill you.”
Those scenes came just days after reports that senior Iranian religious figures again invoked what they described as a religious duty to eliminate both Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Yet almost as quickly as the intelligence surfaced, some Democrats began questioning it.
Rep. Adam Smith of Washington suggested Israel may have motives for emphasizing the threat, telling CNN that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long favored a more aggressive American posture toward Iran.
“It’s hard to know exactly what that intel is,” Smith said, adding that Israel would like to “buck up Trump” and encourage a tougher approach toward Tehran.
That skepticism has generated its own backlash among conservatives, who point out that Iranian threats against Trump are hardly a new invention.
Federal authorities have previously disclosed Iranian-linked plots targeting Trump and other former administration officials. The Biden-era Justice Department brought charges in prior cases involving alleged Iranian assassination schemes, while intelligence agencies repeatedly warned about Tehran’s continuing interest in retaliation for Soleimani’s death.
The larger question now is whether this latest warning represents another propaganda threat from a regime famous for fiery rhetoric—or evidence of a genuine operational plot.
Either way, security officials appear unwilling to take chances. Reports indicate that Trump’s travel arrangements were altered during his return from Turkey, with the White House acknowledging security considerations behind changes to the president’s transportation plans.
