President Trump says he has left standing orders to strike Iran “at all levels” if Tehran ever succeeds in killing him, a warning tied to fresh intelligence Israel passed to Washington about an alleged new Iranian assassination plot.
Story Snapshot
- Israel gave the United States intelligence pointing to a new Iranian scheme to kill Trump, according to sources cited by CNN and the Wall Street Journal.
- Trump publicly said he has “been on their list for a long time” and left orders to retaliate militarily if he is assassinated.
- Two prior criminal cases, involving Farhad Shakeri and Asif Merchant, already accuse Iran’s Revolutionary Guard of directing plots against Trump.
- Iran’s government, including its president and foreign ministry, has repeatedly and publicly denied any assassination plan.
- Key details behind the newest warning remain classified, so the public cannot yet see the full evidence.
Israel Warns of a Fresh Plot
Israel told the United States it had picked up intelligence suggesting Iran devised a new plan to kill Trump, according to the Wall Street Journal. CNN reported two sources said American officials had already noticed a “steady drumbeat” of related intelligence before Israel’s tip arrived. Officials said the warning was new and specific, though the sources described it as reflecting a desire among hardline Iranian leaders rather than a fully detailed operational plan.
The Israeli warning has not been independently vetted by American agencies on their own, according to CNN’s sourcing. That gap matters. It means the strongest details behind this latest claim sit inside classified channels, out of public view, leaving citizens to judge the threat based on summaries rather than the underlying intelligence itself.
Criminal Cases Back Up Earlier Claims
Two federal prosecutions give the broader pattern real legal weight. The Justice Department unsealed charges in 2024 accusing Farhad Shakeri of being directed by the Revolutionary Guard to surveil and kill Trump, with orders to produce a plan within one week or pause until after Election Day. A separate case ended in conviction: a jury found Asif Merchant guilty of murder for hire after he admitted at trial that the Revolutionary Guard sent him to the United States to arrange political assassinations.
Those convictions and charges are documented in court filings, not just anonymous leaks. Still, the Merchant case shows some ambiguity. His handler reportedly never named a specific target, only floating possible names including Trump, then-President Biden, and Nikki Haley. That detail keeps a direct, confirmed order tying every episode specifically to Trump from being fully settled in the public record.
Trump’s Retaliation Warning
Trump has responded publicly and forcefully. In a televised interview, he said he has “been on their list for a long time” and that he left instructions to “bomb them all at all levels” if Iran ever succeeds in killing him. That statement is Trump’s own account of what he ordered, not an independently confirmed military directive, but it shows how seriously the White House is treating the threat.
Iran Pushes Back Hard
Iranian officials have not stayed quiet. President Masoud Pezeshkian told NBC News his country “never” plotted to kill Trump, calling the accusations a tactic to stir fear of Iran. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson separately called the claims “malicious” and denied any role in an armed assault. Those denials do not address the specific timeline laid out in the Shakeri charging papers, but they guarantee this remains a contested, high-stakes dispute rather than a settled matter.
What Remains Unproven
Several pieces of this story still lack public documentation. No declassified Iranian order from top leadership has surfaced showing direct authorization for any of the alleged plots. No specific “military agreement” between the two nations, or proof of its breach, appears in the public record. And the newest 2026 warning relies on unnamed officials, a common but evidentially weaker form of sourcing than sworn testimony or filed charges.
For a country already skeptical of what officials tell them, this story lands in familiar territory. Real criminal convictions exist. Real denials exist. And real gaps in public evidence exist too. Americans on both the left and right are left waiting for agencies to release more than summaries, especially when the stakes involve a sitting president’s life and the threat of another military confrontation in the Middle East.
Sources:
nytimes.com, politico.com, justice.gov, youtube.com, reuters.com, iranintl.com
