On Wednesday, the former president announced that he had received a briefing from intelligence officers regarding an additional lethal plot to assassinate him. He described it as a “big threat” that was almost carried out by one of America’s most infamous foreign adversaries.
Trump stated that the US military is “watching and waiting” to see whether Iran follows through on a covert plan to assassinate him before Election Day in a post on Truth Social. According to a campaign spokeswoman, he receives briefings from American intelligence authorities about “real and specific threats” that want to topple the government. “Big threats on my life by Iran. The entire U.S. Military is watching and waiting. Moves were already made by Iran that didn’t work out, but they will try again,” Trump wrote Tuesday night.
“Not a good situation for anyone,” he went on. “I am surrounded by more men, guns, and weapons than I have ever seen before. Thank you to Congress for unanimously approving far more money to Secret Service – Zero ‘NO’ Votes, strictly bipartisan. Nice to see Republicans and Democrats get together on something. An attack on a former President is a Death Wish for the attacker!”
“President Trump was briefed earlier today by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence regarding real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States,” spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement to NBC News. “Intelligence officials have identified that these continued and coordinated attacks have heightened in the past few months, and law enforcement officials across all agencies are working to ensure President Trump is protected and the election is free from interference.”
While acknowledging that President Trump was briefed, an official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence refrained from providing further details regarding the quantity or type of the most recent threats directed towards him. Requests for comment were neither answered by the Harris campaign or the Iranian representation to the UN in New York.
After the shooting on July 13th that almost took President Trump’s life, the Secret Service increased its level of protection surrounding him. After the historic security disaster, a postmortem revealed that agents were ill-prepared and utterly inexperienced in liaising with local authorities, managing their meager equipment stock, or monitoring a suspicious person before they discharged their firearm. A few days later, the Biden administration revealed that it was aware of the Iranian plot against Trump, and acting director of the Secret Service Robert Rowe authorized Trump’s hiring of more bodyguards.
But since then, the troubled security organization has been in disarray, and concerns have been raised about its ability to stop such assaults. According to a preliminary assessment released by the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, agents were not given enough time to practice using the unmanned drones that would be monitoring the Butler, Pennsylvania protest site. Even worse, when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks was being tracked by counter-snipers trying to get a better angle from a nearby roof, they were unable to get in touch with the police on the ground. Authorities reported the open roof to the Secret Service, but they did not pursue any further action, leaving the roof unprotected. At that point, Crooks moved into position, pulled out a few shots, hit Trump once, killed another, and badly wounded two more.
