The Trump campaign was briefed by intelligence officials on ’real and specific’ threats from Iran to assassinate him.
MINT HILL, N.C.—Former President Donald Trump said on Sept. 25 that if he were in the Oval Office, he would threaten to blow Iran “to smithereens” over threats made to the Republican nominee.
His remarks came after the Office of the Director of National Intelligence briefed the Trump campaign on Sept. 24 on “real and specific” threats from Iran to “assassinate [Trump] in an effort to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States,” according to the campaign.
During his administration, Trump imposed heavy sanctions on the country and ordered the assassination of Lt. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force, in January 2020. Iranian officials vowed to avenge the assassination.
Speaking at a campaign event in Mint Hill, North Carolina, Trump said: “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.
“We have to let him know … that if you do any attacks on former presidents or candidates for president, your country gets blown to smithereens, as they say.”
Iran’s government has rejected allegations that it has attempted to kill Trump, saying that it instead seeks to take legal action against him for Soleimani’s death.
Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, is currently visiting New York City for the 79th session of the U.N. General Assembly. Federal law mandates that Pezeshkian, as a foreign head of state, be protected by the U.S. Secret Service while present in the United States—a situation Trump criticized given Iran’s alleged attempts to kill him.
Trump is not the first U.S. official to allegedly be targeted by Iran. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former national security adviser John Bolton, both of whom served in Trump’s administration and were proponents of his Iran policy, have faced ongoing threats from the country—prolonging their government-provided security details long after they’ve left office.
“We have the president of Iran in our country this week. We have large security forces guarding him, and yet they are threatening our former president and the leading candidate to become the next president of the United States—certainly a strange set of circumstances,” Trump said.
Iran has also mounted cyberattacks on Trump’s campaign, U.S. intelligence agencies have confirmed. In early July, Iran obtained data that it later tried to provide to President Joe Biden’s campaign. Biden’s campaign did not use the information, according to federal law enforcement agencies investigating the incident.
The assassination attempts on Trump have prompted more security at his campaign rallies. Nowadays, when outdoors, Trump speaks from behind a bulletproof glass screen that surrounds his podium.
Trump also addressed the ongoing investigation of the two men, the deceased Thomas Matthew Crooks and Ryan Wesley Routh, who tried to kill the former president on July 13 and Sept. 15, respectively.
He said that Apple, which produces the iPhone, should cooperate with the FBI’s investigation of the shooters by assisting in the unlocking of certain encrypted text messaging apps they used, which have reportedly posed problems for the investigation.
“The FBI has been unable to open the three potentially foreign-based apps. In the second case, the assassin had six cellphones in his car and the FBI has likewise been unable to penetrate their guard,” Trump said.
“They want to know, and I want to know, who he’s been calling.”
The FBI and Apple did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication.