A current US official and two former officials told Reuters that Israel sent Washington several warnings over the past year alleging that Iran intended to assassinate President Donald Trump. The scenarios included a sniper attack, recruiting someone to stab him at a large public event, and potentially using a shoulder-launched missile against his aircraft.
The intelligence behind a secret presidential security operation was never independently corroborated by US agencies, according to Reuters, even as warnings from Israel helped drive protective measures around Trump.
The CIA could not corroborate some of those specific warnings, and in several instances assessed Israeli intelligence concerning Iranian threats with “low confidence,” Reuters reported.
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Israel’s embassy rejected the suggestion that intelligence sharing was being used to shape US policy toward Tehran.
The most consequential Israeli warning came before the July NATO summit in Ankara. Reuters reported that Israeli officials warned the White House that Iran could target Trump while he was traveling on Air Force One, potentially with a shoulder-launched missile.
The Secret Service ultimately moved Trump to a smaller C-32A aircraft on July 8, while Air Force One departed separately with senior officials, staff, and the traveling press pool. A source briefed on the operation told Reuters earlier this week that the Secret Service considered the threat credible and imminent.
But the new development adds a significant qualification. A Turkish official said Turkey’s intelligence services found no evidence corroborating the Israeli warning and shared that assessment with the Americans.
US intelligence also could not independently confirm the threat.
The assassination rhetoric isn’t without precedent because the US already had an independent basis for treating Iranian assassination threats seriously. In November 2024, the Justice Department charged Iranian national Farhad Shakeri and alleged that an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps official had tasked him with providing a plan to kill Trump.
