President Biden reportedly instructed his National Security Council to make clear to Iran that any attempt on former President Trump’s life would be viewed as an act of war.
The stark warning comes as the Trump team has been briefed on specific attempts on Trump’s life, and they’ve made an unusual request for military aircraft in the waning days of the campaign.
The U.S. has gone to unprecedented lengths to protect the former president from retaliation from Iran for the 2020 killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Some $150 million a year has gone to protecting officials like former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, former head of U.S. Central Command, according to Politico.
The Trump campaign recently requested military aircraft capable of shooting down missiles to tote the former president around in the weeks before the election.
When pressed by Fox News Digital last month, the White House declined to say whether Biden believed killing Trump would be an act of war, but promised to keep the Trump team in the loop on the threat assessment from Iran.
“We consider this a national and homeland security matter of the highest priority, and we strongly condemn Iran for these brazen threats,” National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savitt said. He confirmed that Iran had long sought revenge on Trump for killing Soleimani.
“We have ensured that appropriate agencies are continuously and promptly providing the former president’s security detail with evolving threat information. Additionally, President Biden has reiterated his directive that the United States Secret Service should receive every resource, capability and protective measure required to address those evolving threats to the former president.”
Both Trump and his high-level officials who ordered the strike in 2020 have faced death threats from Iran, which also recently hacked Trump’s campaign and tried to peddle information to Democrats and the media.
Trump prodded Biden to tell Iran it would be “blown to smithereens” if a U.S. politician was harmed.
“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,” he reiterated.
Biden told reporters on Friday he would be happy to offer Trump military aircraft in the final stages of his campaign, “as long as he doesn’t ask for F-15s.”
“Look, what I’ve told the department is to give him every single thing he needs for his – as if he were a sitting president,” he said. “Give him all that he needs. If it fits within that category, that’s fine.”
Iran has made no secret of its intent to kill Trump. In 2022, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, circulated an animated clip of a drone firing on Trump at his golf course. That video resurfaced online recently.