Axios Exposes Iran's Failed Plot to Assassinate Trump

On Sunday, the news outlet Axios examined the Iranian government's plan to assassinate Donald Trump during the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Alex Eisenstadt, relying on his book titled "Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump's Return to Power," stated that the threat of Trump's assassination by the Islamic Republic is "much more serious" than publicly acknowledged, prompting extraordinary security measures from his security team. According to Axios, law enforcement officials warned Trump during the campaign that Iran had deployed operatives equipped with surface-to-air missiles on U.S. soil. This raised concerns within Trump's team that Iranian terrorist operatives might attempt to shoot down his private jet during takeoff or landing. The unsuccessful assassination attempt on Trump on September 16 in Florida heightened his security team's worries. Eisenstadt further noted that after the failed assassination in Florida, Trump's security team, concerned about the Iranian threat, sent him to the campaign using a private plane owned by Steve Witkoff, the current U.S. special envoy for Middle East affairs. Many of Trump's staff who flew on this day were angered upon learning of the situation, and later, the flight of Trump's staff became known as the "ghost flight." The U.S. Secret Service also arranged two vehicle caravans that day, with Trump in one and his staff in another. Eisenstadt mentioned that after the campaign event on September 18 in Long Island, New York, the Secret Service warned Trump's campaign officials that someone might attempt to shoot at the vehicle caravans carrying Trump and his staff, which led one of Trump's advisors to strongly caution him against lowering the window of his vehicle. A week after the incident, Secret Service agents observed a drone following the vehicle caravans carrying Trump and his companions. Agents in one of the vehicles immediately opened the roof and used their electromagnetic weapons to disable the drone. Previously, on November 9 (during Joe Biden's administration), the U.S. Department of Justice published details of an indictment related to the thwarting of an Iranian plot to assassinate Donald Trump before the presidential election. According to the criminal indictment filed in federal court in Manhattan, New York, an anonymous official of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had ordered one of Iran's operatives in September (September 11 to October 1) to prepare a plan to monitor and ultimately assassinate Trump. The U.S. Department of Justice identified the main Iranian operative for the assassination of Donald Trump as Farhad Shakri, a 51-year-old resident of Iran, along with his associates Carlyle Rivera, 49, from Brooklyn, New York, and Jonathan Ludolt, 36, from Staten Island, New York.