President Donald Trump has dismissed Israeli intelligence suggesting a new Iranian assassination plot against him, telling the New York Post that “Israel came up with nothing” and describing the alleged threat as longstanding rather than representing a fresh danger. The president characterized Iranian officials as “evil, sick people” but downplayed the urgency of the warning that Israeli intelligence shared with Washington this week.
At a NATO conference, Trump acknowledged the threat more starkly, saying Iran’s leaders “may be gone” and adding “I may be gone too, because I’m their No. 1 target.” He also revealed he has left instructions to “just literally bomb them at levels they have never seen before” if Iran carries out an assassination attempt against him.
The intelligence warning arrived as the 60-day ceasefire between Washington and Tehran collapsed, with Trump declaring the agreement finished and both sides resuming strikes and threats. Two sources said American officials had not independently vetted the intelligence and were not tracking the threat before Israel delivered its report.
Skepticism Over Israeli Motives
Some American officials viewed the Israeli report with caution, suggesting it could be part of a broader effort by Israel to influence Trump’s thinking as he weighs whether to escalate military action against Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been a vocal critic of the ceasefire arrangement, and intelligence community members routinely approach Israeli reporting on Iranian threats with skepticism.
The warning was nevertheless described as specific, distinct from the general threat environment U.S. agencies had already been monitoring. Trump spoke with Netanyahu on Thursday, July 9, and the two leaders agreed to maintain close coordination between their governments.
Subsequent reporting shifted the characterization of the intelligence significantly. Israel’s Channel 12 quoted U.S. officials describing it as a “general discussion” among Iranian officials rather than an operational plot, downgrading the initial claim. CNN later moved from describing a “detailed plot” to merely a “desire” among hardline Iranian elements, particularly the new Revolutionary Guard commander Ahmad Vahidi.
Years of Iranian Threats
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 longstanding grievance has taken on fresh urgency as the two countries trade threats and strikes following the ceasefire’s collapse.
American intelligence agencies have been picking up signals in recent weeks about possible efforts to target Trump, and the intelligence community has expressed concern that Iran could target a range of current and former senior U.S. officials beyond the president alone. Agencies have been tracking several actors who have discussed carrying out attacks but have not yet moved to action.
Open Threats and Death Bounties
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.”
Trump made his comments against a particularly charged backdrop. 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.
Escalating Rhetoric, Flickering Diplomacy
In the days after the warning surfaced, Trump escalated his 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.
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.
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. Thursday’s call with Netanyahu appeared intended to reinforce the U.S.-Israel alliance at a moment when both governments face Iran from different but overlapping angles.
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.