Israel has provided the United States with fresh intelligence detailing a specific, newly devised plan by Iran to assassinate President Donald Trump, according to U.S. media reports published Thursday.
​The alarming intelligence briefing arrived this week amidst a dangerous escalation in West Asia, where tit-for-tat military strikes between Washington and Tehran have shattered a fragile 60-day ceasefire and sparked intense fears of all-out war.
​According to reports from The Wall Street Journal and CNN, Israeli officials passed the warning to U.S. agencies earlier this week. While American intelligence has monitored a continuous stream of general Iranian threats against the president, sources noted that the Israeli report was distinct because it targeted a specific, active plot.
​U.S. officials are reportedly analyzing the data. Some inside the intelligence community suggested the timing of the leak could be an effort by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to influence Trump’s decision-making as he weighs whether to launch intensive military strikes against Tehran.
​Tehran has repeatedly vowed vengeance against Trump following the January 2020 drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force. Tensions spiked further over the weekend following the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during which public funeral processions featured banners explicitly calling for Trump’s death.
​When asked about the reported assassination plot, the White House directed reporters to comments made by Trump on Wednesday during a press briefing at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.
​”They want to take out the U.S. leader—me,” Trump told reporters. “I’m on every list. I saw this morning, I’m on every single one of their lists. And so far, I guess I’ve been a little bit lucky, but that maybe doesn’t last very long.”
​Trump later added that he had recently been informed of a new list ranking him as Iran’s top target, though it remains unconfirmed if he was referring directly to the Israeli dossier.
​The disclosure of the specific plot sheds light on Trump’s highly unusual and puzzling departure from Turkey on Wednesday evening.
​Instead of flying back to Washington on his newly retrofitted, Qatari-gifted Air Force One—which transported him to the summit—Trump unexpectedly boarded an older, legacy “baby blue” Air Force One to fly from Ankara to RAF Mildenhall in Britain. Reporters on board the older aircraft were instructed to keep their window blinds completely closed during the flight over the region.
​Sources later confirmed that the U.S. Secret Service strongly advised the plane swap so Trump could travel on a legacy aircraft fully equipped with advanced military countermeasure systems, including laser technology capable of blinding incoming missiles. The new Qatari-donated Boeing 747, hurried into service earlier this year, reportedly lacks some of these sophisticated defensive and secure communication capabilities.
​Trump later switched back to the newer jet at the British military base for the final leg of his journey to Joint Base Andrews. He publicly dismissed security concerns on social media, claiming the swap was done “for old time’s sake” and to show the new aircraft to U.S. service members stationed in the U.K.
​The intelligence warning comes at a highly volatile moment. Following Iranian attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz earlier in the week, Trump declared the standing memorandum of understanding with Tehran “over.”
​U.S. fighter jets launched heavy strikes across Iran, and Tehran retaliated on Thursday by striking U.S. military infrastructure in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Jordan.
​Despite the open hostilities and the newly exposed plot, behind-the-scenes diplomacy has not collapsed entirely. U.S. officials confirmed Thursday that technical and diplomatic talks between Washington and Tehran are still quietly underway, with both sides still aiming to secure a nuclear agreement by mid-August.
