A Western intelligence agency warned American authorities that Iran was plotting to kill President Donald Trump during his visit to Ankara for the NATO summit, prompting a last-minute switch of his aircraft and heightened security measures that included ordering reporters to keep their window shades closed during takeoff.
The warning, first reported by the Daily Mail, cited intelligence indicating that senior Iranian officials viewed Trump's trip to Turkey as an opportunity to target the American president. Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 separately reported on the Iranian threat assessment.
The threat was serious enough to force a change in presidential transport. Trump was moved from the newer Air Force One, a plane donated by Qatar, to an older model. The New York Times reported that one reason for the switch was Secret Service concern that the Qatari-donated aircraft lacked necessary defensive features found on the older jet.
Fox News reported that Israel shared intelligence with the United States indicating Iran had developed a fresh plan to assassinate Trump. The threat stems from Iran's long-running hostility toward the president over the 2020 U.S. strike that killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps General Qasem Soleimani.
The New York Post reported that the specific threat had not been tracked by U.S. officials before Israel's warning and had yet to be fully vetted. The White House described the plane switch in Turkey as a strategic act of "distraction and misdirection" to keep Trump safe.
At the NATO summit press conference, Trump himself addressed the danger plainly. He told reporters:
"They [Iran] want to take out the US leader, me. I'm on every list. I'm on every single one of their lists, and so far I guess I've been a little bit lucky, but that maybe doesn't last very long, because that's the way it goes."
Those are not the words of a man unaware of what he faces. They are the words of a president who has survived at least one prior assassination attempt and understands that the Iranian regime has made killing him a stated objective.
The intelligence warning did not arrive in a vacuum. Fox News noted that Iranian mourners at Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's funeral chanted for Trump's death and displayed a banner reading "We Will Kill Trump." Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, publicly pledged retaliation against Trump for the killing of his father in U.S. and Israeli strikes in late February.
In 2024, the Justice Department charged an individual linked to an Iranian murder-for-hire scheme targeting Trump, Newsmax reported. The pattern is neither new nor speculative. Tehran has broadcast its intentions through official channels, proxy networks, and public rallies for years.
Breitbart reported that Israeli intelligence indicated some Iranian officials, including the new IRGC commander Ahmad Vahidi, were advocating for Trump's assassination. U.S. intelligence found no specific operational plot at the time of that reporting but confirmed continued indications that various Iranian actors wanted Trump dead.
Trump made clear he has prepared for the worst. He told reporters he has left standing instructions for a massive retaliatory response against Iran if anything happens to him, a statement he has repeated publicly and which he elaborated on in detail.
"The only thing is, I've left instructions, if anything happens, to just literally bomb them at levels that they've never seen before."
The decision to swap planes at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, England, deserves closer examination. The newer Air Force One, gifted by Qatar, reportedly lacks the missile detection and countermeasure systems installed on the older presidential aircraft. That the Secret Service deemed those features essential for this particular trip tells you how seriously the threat was taken.
Reporters aboard the press cabin were told to keep their window shades closed during takeoff. No explanation was given at the time. The instruction now reads as part of a broader effort to limit the aircraft's visibility and reduce targeting risk.
Sabrina Singh, a former Biden administration deputy Pentagon press secretary, offered a frank assessment of the threat environment. As AP News reported, Singh stated:
"Iran wanting to target senior American leaders is something that we know is happening. You have to take these as credible threats."
That acknowledgment from a former Democratic administration official is notable. The Iranian threat against Trump is not a partisan talking point. It is a documented, multi-year campaign by a hostile foreign power to murder an American president.
The assassination plot emerged against a backdrop of escalating military confrontation between the United States and Iran. On Sunday, Iran struck a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Oman. On Monday, U.S. Central Command struck dozens of Iranian sites including air defense systems, radar installations, missile and drone equipment, and small boats.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, once saw a fifth of the world's traded crude oil and natural gas pass through it. Iran's Revolutionary Guard claimed ownership of the waterway in blunt terms, calling the U.S. military "a rogue and child-killing army from the other side of the world."
Central Command pushed back directly: "The Strait of Hormuz is a vital maritime corridor for global trade. Iran does not control it."
EU diplomat Kaja Kallas echoed the point, saying the strait "has to be opened" and that "freedom of navigation has to be respected." UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that "a return to full-scale hostilities would have catastrophic consequences."
Iran and the United States are reportedly near the midway point of a 60-day interim deal intended to establish talks for a permanent resolution. That deal now appears to be fraying badly, with military strikes, commercial vessel attacks, and assassination plots all running simultaneously.
The threats against Trump's life are not isolated incidents. They form a clear, documented pattern stretching back years. The 2020 Soleimani strike gave Tehran a grievance it has openly vowed to avenge. The 2024 murder-for-hire charge showed Iran was willing to use criminal proxies on American soil. The public chants and banners at Khamenei's funeral showed the regime feels no need to hide its intentions.
And now, during a NATO summit in a NATO country, the president of the United States had to switch planes and pull down window shades because a foreign adversary may have been positioning to carry out an attack.
The broader question, one that has followed Trump through multiple threat investigations and an era of rising political violence, is whether America's security and intelligence apparatus is moving fast enough to stay ahead of adversaries who have made their intentions this explicit.
Several questions remain unanswered. Which Western intelligence agency delivered the initial warning? What was the specific mechanism of the alleged plot? Has the U.S. government officially confirmed or denied the threat? And what specific defensive capabilities does the older Air Force One carry that the newer Qatari-donated plane lacks?
These are not academic questions. They bear directly on whether the president can travel safely to allied nations, a basic requirement of American global leadership that should not be in doubt.
When a hostile regime announces its intention to kill an American president, displays banners promising it, charges operatives to carry it out, and then sees its target forced to switch aircraft at the last minute during a trip to a NATO ally, that is not a crisis averted. That is a warning that the next one may come faster.
