Trump, without evidence, suggests possible Iranian involvement in two assassination attempts

Donald Trump suggested without evidence Wednesday that Iran might have been involved in two recent attempted assassinations against him, as he called for threatening to blow the country to “smithereens” if it harmed a presidential candidate.

During campaign remarks in North Carolina, Trump said the two attempted assassinations “may or may not involve, but possibly do Iran. But I don’t really know.” There is no evidence of any Iranian involvement in either attempted assassination on July 13, in Butler, Pa., or on Sept. 15, in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Officials with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence briefed Trump on Tuesday about “real and specific threats” by Iran to assassinate him with the goal of destabilizing the United States and sowing chaos, campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement Tuesday. Cheung also claimed without evidence that Iran wanted Vice President Kamala Harris to win the November presidential election.

Trump said in North Carolina the U.S. should threaten a devastating military response to any harm against a U.S. presidential candidate. If he were president, Trump said, he “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 added, “But right now, we don’t have that leadership or the necessary people, the necessary leaders.”

Those remarks drew condemnation from the National Iranian American Council, which called them “an outrageous threat that should be widely condemned as psychotic and genocidal.”

In a joint statement released by ODNI, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency earlier this month, the agencies said that “the FBI learned additional details about Iran’s efforts to sow discord and shape the outcome of U.S. elections.” The agencies also wrote that “Iranian malicious cyber actors” have sought to send “stolen, nonpublic material associated with former president Trump’s campaign to U.S. media organizations.”

Trump spoke Wednesday as world leaders including the president of Iran gathered in New York this week the United Nations General Assembly.

“We have large security forces guarding him and yet they’re 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.

During his speech in North Carolina, the former president also spoke at length about the war in Ukraine, blaming Biden and Harris for the conflict and claiming without evidence that a “deal could have been made.” He also sharply criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, saying: “we continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal,” a reference to U.S. military aid.

“Biden and Kamala allowed this to happen by feeding Zelensky money and munitions like no country has ever seen before,” Trump said. “It’s all such a horror, Biden and Harris caused this situation by the stupidity of what they said, by every move they make.”

Trump has repeatedly claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin would have never invaded Ukraine if he were still president. The Washington Post previously reported that Trump has privately said he could end Russia’s war with Ukraine by pressuring Ukraine to give up some territory. He also claimed on Wednesday that Zelensky was “making little nasty aspersions toward your favorite president.”

Zelensky — who spoke at the U.N. on Wednesday — is currently on a visit to the United States to try to drum up further support for the war as Russia makes advances ahead of winter. The Ukrainian leader plans to outline a “victory plan” in a meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday and also plans to see Harris. He has also sought to meet Trump to discuss the victory plan, which includes a list of Ukrainian requests, including NATO membership, that Kyiv says would help repel future Russian attacks.

Trump’s comments appeared to blame Zelensky for the fighting in his country, even though Russia was the aggressor of the unprovoked war in 2022. Ukrainian leaders have been cautious about cutting a deal with Russia that would allow Moscow to retain control of parts of their territory for a host of reasons, one of which has been the violent treatment of local Ukrainians by Russian forces on occupied Ukrainian territories over the course of the war.

Trump and Zelensky have a tense relationship that dates back to 2019 and the former U.S. president’s first impeachment, which came after he withheld military aid to Kyiv in a bid to get the Ukrainian leader to dig up alleged dirt about Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine. Trump’s allies were critical of a Monday appearance by Zelensky in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he toured an ammunition factory and visited with Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), who has been campaigning for Harris.

Trump associates, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) have said that the appearance amounted to a Democratic campaign event in a swing state. Johnson on Wednesday sent Zelensky a letter demanding that he fire Ukraine’s ambassador in Washington, Oksana Markarova, for her role in organizing the visit.

In his speech, Trump lamented the destruction from the war, calling the country “absolutely obliterated.” He further appeared to suggested that Ukraine wants the United States to “send American kids over,” which is not a current request from the Ukrainian government.

Trump’s campaign also announced Wednesday that he will return for a rally at the same site of his attempted assassination this summer in Butler, Pa., on Oct. 5