From Axios this morning:
Iran's threat to assassinate Donald Trump during the 2024 campaign was far more serious than publicly known — and led to extraordinary precautions by his team that included using a decoy plane to avert a feared attempt on his life, Axios' Alex Isenstadt reports.
• Alex's upcoming book, "Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump's Return to Power," reveals the depth of U.S. authorities' concerns about an Iranian attack on Trump — and how it impacted him.
✈️ Behind the scenes: For the book, which will be out March 18, Alex had extensive access to Trump's inner circle during his campaign.
• Law enforcement officials warned Trump last year that Tehran had placed operatives in the U.S. with access to surface-to-air missiles, Alex writes.
• Trump's team worried that the Iranians could try to down his easily recognizable personal jet — better known as "Trump Force One" — as it was taking off or landing.
• The concern intensified after a foiled assassination attempt of Trump at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Sept. 15.
Iran hasn't been linked to that incident or the shooting in Pennsylvania two months earlier, in which a bullet nicked Trump in the ear.
• But at one point soon after the Florida incident, Trump's security detail was concerned enough about the Iran threat that it had Trump travel to an event on a decoy plan owned by Steve Witkoff, who's now Trump's envoy to the Middle East.
Guess that's why he publicly announced last week he's left orders to turn it into a parking lot if they ever do it:Updated 4:33 PM CST, February 4, 2025
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he’s given his advisers instructions to obliterate Iran if it assassinates him.
“If they did that they would be obliterated,” Trump said in an exchange with reporters while signing an executive order calling for the U.S. government to impose maximum pressure on Tehran. “I’ve left instructions if they do it, they get obliterated, there won’t be anything left.”
