“I’m on every list. I saw this morning, I’m on every single one of their lists.” Donald Trump said that in Ankara, Turkey, on a Wednesday in July 2026, and a day later the Wall Street Journal explained why it mattered. Israel, the paper reported, had passed Washington intelligence on a fresh Iranian plan to kill him.
Trump added that he had been “a little bit lucky” so far, “but that maybe doesn’t last very long.” Asked about the report, the White House pointed to those remarks. The Times of Israel noted that the Journal’s account did not say when Israel gave the U.S. its intelligence or how.
Trump’s response
In an interview with the New York Post, Trump brushed the warning off: “No, no. Israel came up with nothing.” He also said he had left “standing instructions” for a response if he were killed. “I’ve left instructions, if anything happens, to just literally bomb them at levels that they’ve never seen before.” The Sunday Guardian reported that U.S. intelligence agencies had not independently verified the Israeli report.
A grudge dating to Soleimani
Iran has publicly promised Trump’s death since a U.S. strike killed Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020. The calls grew louder after the February 28 killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in joint U.S.-Israeli strikes. At his funeral procession, mourners carried banners reading “We Will Kill Trump.”
The threat is not new for other officials either. In August 2022, the Justice Department charged Shahram Poursafi, a 45-year-old member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, with plotting to murder John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser. Prosecutors tied the scheme to Soleimani’s death.
According to the allegations, Poursafi started in October 2021 by contacting a person online. He sent Bolton’s office address and surveillance photographs, and an offer of $250,000 rose to $300,000. The person on the other end was a confidential FBI source. In late April 2022, Poursafi sent $100 in cryptocurrency. CBS News reported that he suggested killing Bolton “by car” while he walked in a park, and later named the parking garage at his office as a good spot.
Poursafi was charged with murder-for-hire, which carries up to 10 years, and with material support to a transnational murder plot, which carries 15 years. He remains at large and is wanted by the FBI. Iran’s foreign ministry called the allegations “baseless claims” made with “political goals and motivations.” Bolton’s own reaction was blunt: “Iran’s rulers are liars, terrorists, and enemies of the United States.”
Sources
- US uncovers Iran 'plot' to kill ex-White House official John Bolton
- Iranian Military Operative Charged in John Bolton Murder Plot (CBS News)
- Israel said to warn US that Iran devised a new plot to assassinate Trump (Times of Israel)
- Israel told US of alleged Iranian plot to kill Trump (Middle East Eye)
- Trump's Iran Assassination Warning (Sunday Guardian)
