US Warned of Iranian Plot to Assassinate Trump Weeks Before Attempt

July 17 in Washington, DC,:
According to national security sources, the US had obtained intelligence regarding an Iranian conspiracy to assassinate Trump from a human source weeks prior to Saturday's attempted assassination of the former US president. As a result, Trump's security was beefed up. But officials have stated that the 20-year-old who tried to kill Trump on Saturday is unrelated to this Iranian plan.

According to a US national security official, the Trump campaign and the US Secret Service were informed about the Iranian danger, which led to an increase in security. Since the drone strike in 2020 that killed Qassim Soleimani, chief of Iran’s Quds unit in Iraq, Trump and his former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, have been threatened by Tehran.

U.S. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi stated that the agency and others were "constantly receiving new potential threat information and taking action to adjust resources as needed." According to him, "We cannot comment on any specific threat stream, other than to say that the Secret Service takes threats seriously and responds accordingly."

State Department spokesperson Adrienne Watson stated that US intelligence agencies have been "tracking Iranian threats against former Trump administration officials for years."

As the Iranian UN mission put it, the report was "unsubstantiated and malicious," and Trump "is a criminal who must be prosecuted and punished in a court of law." On Monday (local time), following his survival of the murder attempt on Saturday, former president Donald Trump made his first public appearance at the Republican National Convention.

The crowd went wild as Trump, with a white bandage covering his right ear, gestured to his followers and got a standing ovation. At the convention, he stood with Senator JD Vance, his freshly declared running mate, but he didn't say a word.

On Saturday, while Trump was speaking at a campaign rally, the sound of gunfire was heard and Secret Service members rushed the stage. Hours subsequent to the incident, Trump stated that the projectile had entered his right ear through the top portion. The shooting at the event left one person dead and two others in critical condition.

The shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was identified by the FBI. Investigators are still looking into the matter.