Iran has a new plan to kill Trump, Israel warns: Sources

a new Iranian plot to assassinate Trump.According to the Wall Street Journal, with new reporting this hour, Israel shared new intelligence with the U .S., which suggests Iran was plotting a new plan to kill President Trump.Now, Israel is not commenting thus far, but President Trump did bring this topic up multiple times yesterday.It was clearly on his mind.

He talked about how his life could be at risk and mentioned specifically that he is Iran's top target.

They want to take out the U .S.leader, me. I'm on every list.I saw a thing this morning.I'm on every single one of their lists.I'm number one on the kill list for Iran.

They're lovely people.I'm number one.I may be gone, too, because I'm their number one target.It's out all over the place.I'm their number one because they're scum.

Were you aware of any threat of fire on Iran?

I haven't read all— Now, you see him there speaking on a plane here in that last clip.

That was on board Air Force One, the old Air Force One, right, that he's gotten rid of because he has the new $400 million presidential jet that he was given by a foreign country, Middle Eastern country, Qatar.According to four U .S.officials, the reason Trump was forced to swap the jets while he was at the NATO event in Turkey was because of security concerns.Two official sources tell CNN that the newer plane did not possess the same capabilities to ensure its, quote unquote, safety in international settings.Well, it came as threats against Trump's life were quite visible at the funeral for the Iranian former Supreme Leader.

We saw the funeral today.We've seen these days and days.We've been showing them to you.I think that if you can read, this becomes clear.It reads, we will kill Trump.Massive, massive banner.

And then, of course, there are smaller ones people are carrying, which read, kill Trump.Maggie, Trump has talked often about Iran targeting him.Yesterday, he talked about it repeatedly.And now, of course, the reporting is that there had been a specific warning from Israel about a plot yesterday.What do you think, knowing Trump, his response will be in the context of a war where a ceasefire is already technically off right now?

It's hard to say, Aaron, and I don't have any independent reporting about this latest threat, but it is correct, as you say.He has been under threat before from Iran for a very long time, going back to 2020.It is not a surprise.It may or may not have something to do with why there was the switch on the plane that he took to fly out of Turkey yesterday to leave the G7.He ended up going back to the old Air Force One, and obviously there's more to learn here.Whether it is going to make him make a different decision in terms of Iran, he has been more hawkish on Iran this entire time than most of his team.

We get into that in detail in the book, and we explain how it was really always there to see if his advisors wanted to.Throughout term one, he was that way, even before he ordered the strike on General Soleimani, which is part of why he is a top target for Iran now.But his choices really, unless he wants to engage in a massive escalation, Erin, are pretty limited.The US munitions are depleted after this war.He does not want to send in boots on the ground.I think he would do that as a very last resort.

So we'll see.

Jonathan, you do write in the book about how Trump really fused the assassination attempt at Butler with a Revolutionary Guard plot from Iran to kill him and other American politicians, that to him, as you report, that he saw this as one threat.How consumed is he, Jonathan, by threats against his life?

Well, you're exactly right.One element that people, I think, underestimate or understate is how much Trump's feelings about Iran intensified and became more personal in the interregnum period, when he was out of office.He was briefed by the FBI that Iran was trying to kill him.Iran hacked the White House.into the emails of Susie Wiles during the campaign.There was this sort of atmosphere of threat that was hanging over the campaign wherever they went.

They switched planes at one time.And Trump has traveled far less this term than he has in the first term.He doesn't he would not articulate this because it would be a sign of weakness.But there are advisors around him who believe that part of the reason for his much more homebound presidency this time around is fear of assassination, which is understandable given what he went through during the campaign.

This is really fascinating reporting.I mean, Maggie, I guess this brings us to the trip that he just took, right?So when he was in Turkey and that he had to leave Turkey on the old version of Air Force One rather than the controversial plane that Qatar gifted to him and that just entered service July 1st, right, that he's been calling magnificent.And we all know he's proud about this.So in the book, you actually go through a lot of detail about how Trump wanted the Qatari jet because he was embarrassed by the old plane.It cost hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to get ready for Trump.

I mean, I guess, Maggie, how surprising is it to you that it goes into service on July 1st?They take it to Turkey.Obviously, they didn't take it to Turkey thinking that it wasn't secure enough to be in Turkey and bring home.But now here it is.That appeared to be the case.How surprising is all this?

Well, we don't know what we don't know, Erin, in terms of what may or may not have been done in terms of security.but certainly, according to all of our reporting, this was done.very quickly to try to get this plane ready so that he could fly it as president.We know that he was very upset about the fact that the two new Boeing jets that he had commissioned as the new Air Force Ones were not going to be ready in time before he left office for a variety of reasons.He was wowed by this new plane, as we write in the book.It was palatial.

And he's been open about this.He thinks that it's commensurate with what a U .S.president ought to have.He thinks that other nations have fancier and nicer jets.But something clearly happened that the Secret Service was concerned about flying because according to our colleagues reporting, the Secret Service was concerned about him flying on that particular plane, and they wanted him to use the old jet.

That is not something that you would normally do.You wouldn't take the old jet with you just for the sake of it.And, you know, I assume we will learn more, but this was always a concern that some military officials, former and some current, had about this plan.

What more are you learning about this new intelligence that Israel shared with the U .S.about an Iranian plan to assassinate President Trump?

Yeah, so what we know is that Israel recently shared this fresh intelligence.It says that it indicates that there was a plan that, you know, Iran was contemplating to kill Trump.And this would help to explain some of his behavior.And I think some of the statements that you guys played, we also saw, you know, the chance at the funeral.And what's important to note is that these these two men have been speaking, you know, very frequently during the war.And they had late night phone calls and they would talk about intelligence and targets.

And the relationship recently soured.

So Trump did seem to, as you point out, right, he brought this up.I mean, we played there were many times that he talked aboutbeing Iran's top target yesterday.Do you know anything about that timing here, I mean just it all just seem to be so intense in terms of his references just yesterday.

Yeah, I think this helps explain some of those statements.This intelligence was was shared very recently.And we think that that's why he was making some of those statements.And this was obviously a concern to him.He has been a target of Iran in the past.But we this is, you know, been on his mind and it's come up again and again.

And not do you know anything about that?Did they share anything about that?the method or how far along this plan was, or obviously there was the development yesterday where people who were on board the old Air Force One reporters were told that they had to put down their window shades.The president said that he had not been told that by Secret Service.But do you know anything about the method or the timing of any possible plot?

No, we don't have these details right now.We just know that these two countries, you know, their cooperation, their military cooperation, intelligence cooperation has really reached unprecedented levels in this war.It's gotten much closer.You know, we have tankers parked at the Tel Aviv -Ben Gurion airport.We have, you know, Israeli officials all over, you know, in different situation rooms in the U .S.

And so this is not unusual, but this is a different level of threat.And yeah, it obviously got Trump's attention.