The News
President Donald Trump may be posting and talking about the fresh assassination threat he faces from Iran — but in private, according to those closest to him, he rarely brings it up.
Trump is still affected in his own way by the near-constant threats he faces as president, from both domestic and foreign actors. He has long taken a fatalistic view of his life — an outlook that’s only deepened since the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, just over two years ago, and subsequent attempts to harm him or his circle.
The threat to Trump’s life from Tehran, which dates back to his 2020 authorization of the drone strike that killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani, spilled into public view in Turkey earlier this month. Amid an unraveling ceasefire with Iran, Trump mused that he is its “Number One target” and ultimately ditched his new Air Force One, reportedly due to security concerns about the aircraft’s defensive capabilities.
Behind closed doors, however, Trump shows a different, almost wry side as he considers his safety. More than a half-dozen aides and lawmakers close to him confirmed to Semafor that he doesn’t dwell seriously on assassination risks — but when it does come up, he’s known to “joke about it,” one White House official said. “He says it privately a lot, too: ‘Nobody told me how dangerous it is to be president, and if they had told me, I probably wouldn’t have run.’ And he makes comments like that in jest, but there’s a reality behind that,” the official told Semafor.
That reality came through during the UFC fight on the South Lawn in June, where podcaster Joe Rogan served as commentator. Rogan later recounted on his podcast that he joked to Trump about the possibility of a terrorist attack at the event, and quoted Trump’s reply as: “We gotta go somehow!” Eight people were later indicted for an alleged plot targeting the fight.It was the latest in an ever-present series of personal perils that have followed Trump through his 2024 campaign to the White House, from a gunman at his Florida golf course to an attack on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner this year.
Those threats have animated plans to beef up security in the renovated White House, sometimes disrupted his travel, and remained top of mind for many of his closest allies on the second anniversary of the Pennsylvania shooting this week.
“That’s why Secret Service is on alert the way they are. That’s why when you go to the White House, it’s a very tough situation,” said Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio. “They’ve tried three different times to kill him.“Trump has repeatedly pressed his case for an expanded White House ballroom with massive security fortifications. But his aides insisted the dangers play no role in his policymaking decisions, even as the US bombards Iran.
“In all the Situation Room meetings I’ve been in, or all the Iran policy meetings I’ve been in, I’ve never heard him say, ‘We need to do this because they want to kill me,’” the White House official said. “He’s never based his policy decisions off of it, but it is something he acknowledges and it’s true. I mean, they’re not shy about it.”
Know More
Trump is acutely focused on perfecting his personal environment, whether that’s in Washington, DC, or on the presidential plane that flies him around the world. The need for security precautions can clearly frustrate him at times — as it did in Turkey, where concerns from the Secret Service forced him to switch planes from his Qatar-gifted new model to an older one, according to The New York Times.
Trump denied that the plane swap was made because of security concerns, though days later his Department of Justice subpoenaed the four reporters who wrote about his new plane.
“I don’t think it made him happy when they made the airplane change,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told Semafor. “They didn’t just do that because they didn’t like the color of the seats. There was a reason.”
He said senators have not been briefed on that event but said the danger to Trump is real: “It’s been the Iranian position for some time. They’d like to kill Trump.”
At the White House Correspondents’ Dinner earlier this year, Trump insisted that he be allowed on stage to finish his remarks after a gunman entered the building, seeking to harm not just Trump but other high-level officials on his team, according to law enforcement. Trump was not allowed back on, despite his protestations. After that dinner, he publicly joked about how dangerous being president is.
“It’s probably the staff that’s way more concerned than he is,” a former White House official told Semafor. “I just keep going back to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, because that’s when it was very, very blatant that he wanted to go out immediately and finish it, and it was like, ‘No, we’re not doing that.’”
He has continued giving speeches in open-air venues, speaking in front of a crowd on the National Mall this summer despite longstanding recommendations from the Secret Service that he shift to indoor events after Butler. This week, Butler is “on everybody’s mind,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.
“There’s no doubt there’s a threat,” Tuberville added.
Room for Disagreement
While Trump faces particularly high-profile threats, personal risk is a longstanding issue for presidents and ex-presidents to navigate. Those in office today have the benefit of things like cybersecurity intelligence and more robust Secret Service protection, said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University.
“It’s part and parcel of being president. Lincoln once commented on it. I mean, it’s horrific. It’s unfortunate, but it’s just part of coming with the job. There’s a bullseye on your back if you’re president of the United States.”
Shelby and Burgess’ View
The Butler assassination attempt helped propel Trump’s comeback from an outcast one-term president to a two-term leader, but it also made him more fixated on his goals and his sense of legacy. That’s evident in everything from his remaking of Washington to his interventions in Venezuela and Iran to his willingness to take his aggressive vision of executive power all the way to the Supreme Court. So while those at his side insist that he didn’t dwell on the assassination attempt two years ago, and that he doesn’t obsess over Iran now, his proximity to danger has undoubtedly solidified his personal belief that he was meant for this moment.
One person close to Trump suggested that risk has “hardened his resolve,” making a president known for doubling down even more likely to do so. While Trump’s policy decisions aren’t defined by the perils he faces, this person added, they have offered him “a conclusion about where he stands in history.”
Notable
- In the moments after the Butler shooting, Trump said he “didn’t think of” fear and talked about his survival being an act of “divine intervention,” according to a New York Magazine profile of the president.