Donald Trump spoke on Wednesday of “significant threats” to his life from Iran, following statements by his presidential campaign team already reporting “real and specific” threats from Tehran put forward by US intelligence services.
“Iran poses a grave threat to my life. The entire U.S. military is watching and waiting,” the Republican presidential candidate for November wrote on his Truth Social social network.
“Iran has taken steps before that didn’t work, but they’re going to try again. […] “I’m surrounded by more men, guns and weapons than I’ve ever seen before,” Trump added.
His campaign said in a statement Tuesday that U.S. intelligence had warned the former president of Iran’s threats to assassinate him.
“President Trump was briefed earlier today by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Iran’s real and specific threats to assassinate him in order to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States,” campaign communications director Steven Cheung said in the statement.
“Intelligence officials have identified that these ongoing, coordinated attacks have intensified in recent months, and law enforcement officials across all agencies are working to ensure that President Trump is protected and the election is free from interference,” he added.
The campaign team did not elaborate on the claims, which come as leaders of major powers are trying to prevent hostilities between the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah and Israel from escalating into a broader regional war.
Iran has rejected accusations that it is trying to kill Donald Trump, shortly after a gunman opened fire at a rally in Pennsylvania, killing one person and wounding the presidential candidate.
Days after the July 13 assassination attempt, U.S. media reported that authorities had received intelligence about an alleged Iranian plot against the Republican, leading to increased protection.
The US National Security Council responded to this information by stating that it had been following “for years Iran’s threats against the former administration of Donald Trump”, with Tehran not hiding its desire for revenge after the death of Qassem Soleimani, former architect of Iranian military operations in the Middle East, killed by a US drone attack in January 2020 in Baghdad.
It was Donald Trump, then in the White House, who ordered the elimination of Mr. Soleimani.
Iran has rejected the accusations as “malicious.”
“If they ‘assassinate President Trump,’ which is always a possibility, I hope America will wipe Iran out, wipe it off the face of the Earth,” Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time.
The billionaire was also the victim of a second assassination attempt, a charge brought Tuesday against Ryan Routh, 58, arrested on September 15 while fleeing after being spotted by Secret Service agents hiding in a bush, with a semi-automatic rifle, near the golf course on which the former president was playing.
Iranian cyber attackers
U.S. intelligence agencies have also accused Iran of targeting the Trump campaign with hacking attacks, saying Tehran was seeking to influence the 2024 election.
U.S. authorities said this month that Iranian cyber attackers offered “nonpublic, stolen” Trump campaign material to staff of his then-White House rival, now-President Joe Biden.
“Foreign actors are stepping up their election influence activities” as November’s election day approaches, the statement said, singling out Russia, Iran and China as “attempting, to some extent, to exacerbate divisions in American society for their own benefit.”
U.S. agencies said Iranian cyber attackers also tried to deliver information stolen from the Trump campaign to U.S. media outlets, without naming the outlets involved.
For its part, Tehran has vehemently denied these accusations.
The campaign of Donald Trump’s presidential rival, Democrat Kamala Harris, said on August 13 that she had also been targeted by foreign hackers, without specifying which country was behind the attempt.
Americans will vote on November 5. Polls show that Mr. Trump and Mr.me Harris, who launched her campaign after Joe Biden withdrew earlier this summer, are neck and neck.