After U.S. and Israeli strikes in Tehran on February 28, 2026, which killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Donald Trump described the operation in very personal terms — saying it was retribution for Iranian plotting to kill him. “I got him before he got me,” Trump told ABC News. The history of threats runs deeper than many realize.
In November 2024, federal agents arrested Manuel Tamayo-Torres, a 45-year-old man from Tolleson, Arizona, for allegedly threatening to kill Trump and members of his family. Tamayo-Torres was taken into custody in San Diego on November 25, 2024, after posting a series of menacing videos on social media in which he appeared with firearms.
A federal grand jury later charged Tamayo-Torres with seven counts, including threats against the president, interstate threatening communications, and unlawful possession of a firearm by someone subject to an order of protection.
Court filings indicate Tamayo-Torres had been uploading videos to Facebook for months, accusing Trump of kidnapping and trafficking his children. It is unclear whether Tamayo-Torres actually has any children. In a November 21 video he declared, “[Y]ou’re gonna die. [Y]our son’s gonna die. Your whole family is going to die… I’m going to put a hole in your face.”
In another video dated August 23, Tamayo-Torres filmed himself at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, during a Trump rally, claiming he had seen Trump and Secret Service agents allegedly abducting his daughter for sex trafficking.
Beyond the threats, Tamayo-Torres faces charges for making false statements when buying firearms. He lied on federal purchase forms in 2023 at a Phoenix gun shop, denying a 2003 San Diego assault conviction. Federal records also show an Arizona court issued a protection order against him in July 2023 barring contact with his ex-wife — another fact he concealed on the firearms paperwork.
The arrest occurred amid an uptick in threats against Trump and his inner circle. Around that time, several of Trump’s cabinet nominees and appointees received bomb threats and were targeted by “swatting” incidents, where false reports are made to prompt an armed law enforcement response. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said those matters were being investigated by federal authorities.
The people targeted included Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, who had been nominated to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations before Trump withdrew her nomination in March 2025 to protect the GOP’s narrow House majority, and Matt Gaetz, Trump’s initial pick for attorney general (Gaetz later declined). Federal officials promptly probed the incidents and worked to secure those involved.
During his 2024 campaign, Trump was the subject of two assassination attempts, one of which grazed his right ear and killed a supporter in the crowd. That July incident at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania involved an assailant with an AR–15–style rifle who fired eight shots from about 400 feet away; a Secret Service sniper intervened before more damage occurred.
In September, another episode unfolded near Trump’s Florida golf course, when Ryan Routh, armed with an AK-style rifle, hid in the brush for nearly 12 hours along the perimeter. A Secret Service agent saw the rifle in the trees and fired; Routh fled without shooting at Trump. Routh was convicted on all counts in September 2025 and given a life sentence on February 4, 2026.
The IRGC-linked network accused of plotting assassinations against Trump has also faced prosecutions in related matters. On January 28, 2026, Carlisle Rivera, a Brooklyn man and convicted murderer, received a 15-year federal sentence for participating in a murder-for-hire plot ordered by the Iranian government against journalist and dissident Masih Alinejad — a case tied to the same IRGC operative, Farhad Shakeri, who was accused of directing assassination plots against Trump before the 2024 election — the same network U.S. officials referenced when explaining the March 2026 strikes on Iran. Co-defendant Jonathon Loadholt of Staten Island pleaded guilty in January 2026 to conspiring to commit stalking and money laundering, with sentencing set for April 2026. Shakeri remains at large in Iran.
The cases gained fresh relevance in early March 2026, after U.S. and Israeli strikes killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. When asked about that operation, Trump told ABC News: “I got him before he got me. They tried twice. Well, I got him first” — explicitly referencing the IRGC’s known plots against him.
On Tuesday, March 10, 2026, a top Iranian security official issued a chilling threat against Trump’s life, warning the American leader to “be careful not to get eliminated yourself” as tensions between the two nations escalate over control of a vital oil shipping route.
Ali Larijani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, posted the veiled assassination threat on X after Trump warned he would strike Iran “twenty times harder” if Tehran blocked oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian official’s message came just two days after Trump’s stark warning on Truth Social, which promised “Death, Fire, and Fury” if Iran interfered with the strategic waterway that carries roughly 20% of the world’s oil supplies.
“The sacrificial nation of Iran doesn’t fear your empty threats. Even those bigger than you couldn’t eliminate Iran. Be careful not to get eliminated yourself,” Larijani wrote in his Tuesday post, according to TIME Magazine.
The risk to the president has persisted since the Tamayo-Torres arrest. On February 22, 2026, Secret Service agents and a Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy fatally shot Austin Tucker Martin, a 21-year-old from North Carolina, after he breached Mar-a-Lago’s north gate — where Trump was not present, having stayed in Washington — carrying a shotgun and a gas can. Authorities continue to investigate this and other security incidents.
