Donald Trump Iran plot intel shared by Israel: media

Israel shared intelligence with the United States about what US media described as a new and specific Iranian plan to assassinate President Donald Trump, CNN and The Wall Street Journal reported.

CNN, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, said Washington had monitored “a steady drumbeat” of intelligence about possible plans to kill Trump, but that the warning from Israel was new and concerned a specific plot. The Wall Street Journal, also citing unidentified sources, said the intelligence described a fresh plot.

Trump said aboard Air Force One on Wednesday that Iran wanted to target him. “They want to take out the US leader — me,” he told reporters while flying home from a NATO summit.

The reports came amid renewed US and Iranian attacks and scrutiny of Trump’s aircraft movements after the Turkey summit.

The Washington Post later reported that Trump secretly left Turkey last month on a smaller aircraft because of an assassination threat from Iran, citing an anonymous US official. The Post reported that Trump boarded an Air Force One jet in Ankara before moving in a catering container attached to the plane, which then took him to a smaller C-32A aircraft that flew to Britain.

Earlier US media reports said security concerns linked to Iranian proxy forces led Trump not to leave Turkey on a new Boeing 747-8 donated by Qatar. The New York Times reported that the switch was made at the request of the US Secret Service as a security precaution.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung later defended the Qatar-gifted aircraft’s safety, saying it had been fitted with high-level security protocols and that officials used every available tool to address threats.

Tehran has for years vowed to retaliate against Trump for ordering the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in January 2020 during Trump’s first term.