“Israel came up with nothing,” President Donald Trump told the New York Post on Friday, brushing off intelligence Israel passed to his administration about Iranian threats against his life. He called himself Iran’s “number one” target “for a long time.”
The Wall Street Journal first reported the Israeli intelligence on Thursday. CNN, citing an Israeli source and a US official, reported that what Israel shared was a desire among parts of Tehran’s hardline leadership to go after Trump, not a detailed plan to carry one out.
Who wants what
The Israeli source told CNN that Ahmad Vahidi, the new commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was among those pushing for such a plan. A source familiar with US planning said Vahidi appears on lists of “obstructionists” that the Trump administration believes are actively undermining negotiations. If full-scale war resumes, the US has considered going after leaders on that list directly.
Two US sources said recent American intelligence assessments show no sign of a new, specific plot. What they describe is a steady drumbeat of chatter about assorted Iranian actors who would like to kill Trump. One source said US officials believe Iranians either have not managed to develop a plan or have not received approval from decision-makers to carry one out.
Nothing has fundamentally changed in the threats against Trump since he began his second term, that source added. The wish to see him dead is not confined to Iran’s leadership, either. Mourners at the days-long funeral for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by Israel in the opening strikes of the war in late February, held up signs urging Iran to kill Trump.
A plane swap
Trump did make one visible change on his way home from a NATO summit on Wednesday. He flew on an older aircraft that has carried presidents for decades, rather than the newer plane that was retrofitted after Qatar donated it and entered service this month. Four US officials said the switch was made partly over security concerns tied to the escalating conflict with Iran.
Sources at the time said there was no specific new threat to his life. Trump had, however, raised the possibility of an Iranian assassination attempt during the summit, after fresh US strikes on Iran.
Israel pushes its case
Two Israeli sources told CNN that Washington does not want Israel involved in the fighting, for fear of losing control of the conflict. One said Israel’s prevailing view is that Trump does not want a return to full-scale war and might go no further than reinstating the naval blockade on Iranian ports.
A US official rejected that reading. “This is fake news,” the official said, adding that the United States “has a strong relationship with Israel” and remains in close coordination with it.
On Friday, Trump posted on Truth Social that the US had told Iranian leaders “in no uncertain terms, that the Cease Fire is OVER!” He also said he had agreed to keep talking in an effort to restore a pause in fighting.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has never believed Tehran is negotiating in good faith and favors a return to war to weaken the regime. According to two sources, US intelligence officials know Israel feels shut out of decisions and is working to steer the administration away from what it sees as a bad deal. Some in the US intelligence community are skeptical of Israeli information for that reason, the sources said. They said that includes how Israeli officials framed the intelligence on the claimed plot.
During Trump’s first term, the US tracked threats against former officials including national security adviser John Bolton. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was also a target of an Iranian assassination plot, according to a federal law enforcement source and a source close to Pompeo.
