The stark warning comes as the Trump team has been briefed on specific attempts on Trump’s life, and they’ve made an unusual request for military aircraft in the waning days of the campaign.
The U.S. has gone to unprecedented lengths to protect the former president from retaliation from Iran for the 2020 killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Some $150 million a year has gone to protecting officials like former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, former head of U.S. Central Command, according to Politico.
The Trump campaign recently requested military aircraft capable of shooting down missiles to tote the former president around in the weeks before the election.
Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, center in 2016, was killed by U.S. forces in 2020. (Press Office of Iranian Supreme Leader/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
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When pressed by Fox News Digital last month, the White House declined to say whether Biden believed killing Trump would be an act of war, but promised to keep the Trump team in the loop on the threat assessment from Iran.
“We consider this a national and homeland security matter of the highest priority, and we strongly condemn Iran for these brazen threats,” National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savitt said. He confirmed that Iran had long sought revenge on Trump for killing Soleimani.
“We have ensured that appropriate agencies are continuously and promptly providing the former president’s security detail with evolving threat information. Additionally, President Biden has reiterated his directive that the United States Secret Service should receive every resource, capability and protective measure required to address those evolving threats to the former president.”
Both Trump and his high-level officials who ordered the strike in 2020 have faced death threats from Iran, which also recently hacked Trump’s campaign and tried to peddle information to Democrats and the media.
Trump prodded Biden to tell Iran it would be “blown to smithereens” if a U.S. politician was harmed.
“If I were the president, I would inform the threatening country, in this case Iran, that if you do anything to harm this person, we are going to blow your largest cities and the country itself to smithereens,” he reiterated.
Iran, led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has made no secret of its intent to kill Trump. (Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Image)
Biden reportedly warned Iran that any attempt to kill Trump would be an act of war. (Aaron Schwartz/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Trump survived one assassination attempt at a rally in July – and the Secret Service thwarted another one at his Florida golf course in September. Trump has surmised that the attempts may be linked to Iran, claims that have not been verified by authorities.
In addition to a military plane, the Trump campaign has asked for armored vehicles typically reserved for sitting presidents, more flight restrictions over his rallies and residences, reimbursements for decoy aircraft and more money for Secret Service and local law enforcement to protect him.
Biden told reporters on Friday he would be happy to offer Trump military aircraft in the final stages of his campaign, “as long as he doesn’t ask for F-15s.”
“Look, what I’ve told the department is to give him every single thing he needs for his – as if he were a sitting president,” he said. “Give him all that he needs. If it fits within that category, that’s fine.”
Iran has made no secret of its intent to kill Trump. In 2022, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, circulated an animated clip of a drone firing on Trump at his golf course. That video resurfaced online recently.
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In June, undercover FBI agents met with a Pakistani man who was looking to hire hit men to assassinate a U.S. politician, according to documents unsealed in August. They arrested the man, Asif Merchant, 46, on July 12, the day before Trump’s Butler, Pennsylvania, rally.
In 2022, the Justice Department charged a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps with attempting to kill former national security adviser John Bolton.
