President Donald Trump has publicly dismissed Israeli intelligence suggesting a new Iranian plot to assassinate him, telling reporters “No, no. Israel came up with nothing. No, no,” and asserting that he has been on Iran’s kill list “for a long time.” Trump’s comments come after Israeli intelligence shared with the United States a new Iranian plot to assassinate the president, a warning that reached American officials this week as the 60-day ceasefire between Washington and Tehran collapsed.
Trump revealed he has “left instructions” for his administration to “bomb [Iran] at levels that they’ve never seen before” if he is assassinated by Iran. He has also vowed to attack Iran if the country continues to strike the Strait of Hormuz, with an operation reportedly dubbed “Operation B**** Slap” by the president’s advisors. Shipping in the Strait of Hormuz has come to an almost complete standstill on the southern non-Iranian route.
A Warning From Israel — and Skepticism Within
The specific details of the plot were not disclosed, and two sources said the U.S. had neither vetted the intelligence independently nor been tracking the threat before Israel’s warning arrived. Some American officials viewed the Israeli report with caution, suggesting it could represent part of a broader Israeli effort to shape Trump’s thinking as he weighs whether to intensify U.S. military action against Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been an outspoken critic of the ceasefire arrangement, and some within the intelligence community are routinely skeptical of Israeli reporting on Iranian threats.
Nevertheless, the warning was described as specific—distinct from the general threat environment that U.S. agencies had already been monitoring in recent weeks. Trump himself spoke with Netanyahu on Thursday, July 9, and the two leaders agreed to maintain close coordination between their governments, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Long-Running Threats Rooted in Soleimani Strike
The U.S. government has tracked Iranian threats against Trump for years, rooted in Tehran’s vow of retaliation for the 2020 drone strike he ordered that killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. That long-running grievance has taken on new urgency as the two countries find themselves once again trading threats and strikes, with the ceasefire that had briefly halted hostilities now described by Trump as finished. The intelligence community has also expressed concern that Iran could target a range of current and former senior U.S. officials—not just Trump alone.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday at the NATO summit in Turkey, Trump said he had recently learned he was ranked as Iran’s top assassination target. He acknowledged the danger with grim candor, saying “they want to take me out”—but insisted in the same breath that his adversaries “want to make a deal badly.”
Threats Escalate During NATO Summit
Trump made his comments against a particularly charged backdrop, as hardline lawmakers in Tehran had openly called for missiles to be fired at his location during the summit, and at funeral proceedings for slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei—who was killed at the outset of the conflict—crowds of mourners called for Trump’s death, with some placing a formal death bounty on the president. The White House, when asked for comment on the Israeli intelligence warning, directed reporters to Trump’s own words at the NATO summit in Turkey on Wednesday—a response that underscored how openly the administration has engaged with the threat narrative in public.
Trump held a press conference alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other senior cabinet officials earlier this week, during which he addressed what he called the “crazy” nature of his opponents and their designs against him. He framed the threat as serious but also as evidence that Iran ultimately wants to negotiate—a tension at the heart of his current Iran policy.
Diplomacy Flickers Amid Escalating Rhetoric
American intelligence agencies had already been picking up a steady drumbeat of signals in recent weeks about possible efforts to target Trump. The intelligence community has been tracking several actors who have discussed carrying out attacks but have not yet moved to action.
In the days after the warning surfaced, Trump escalated his own rhetoric sharply. He threatened to “decimate and destroy” Iran if Tehran acted on any plot against him, posting that “1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran,” while the Treasury Department imposed fresh sanctions on an alleged Iranian financier. Even so, Trump said on July 10 that Washington and Tehran had agreed to keep talking despite the collapsed ceasefire, with Qatar and Pakistan working as mediators and Iran’s foreign minister traveling to Oman—leaving the conflict suspended between open threats of assassination and a still-flickering diplomatic track.
The assassination threat intelligence adds to an already combustible set of pressures bearing down on the White House as Trump navigates the wreckage of a ceasefire and decides what comes next with Iran.
