With Trump facing threats, security and politics intersect as never before

WASHINGTON – Former president Donald Trump has been the target of two would-be assassins in a matter of months. The intelligence agencies have told him that Iran is still threatening to kill him, and Iranian hackers got into the e-mail accounts of his aides.

Those developments have left Trump and his staff fearful, frustrated and dependent for the 2024 presidential candidate’s safety on federal agencies at the heart of what Trump has long portrayed as a hostile “deep state”.

But Trump and his team have also seized on his predicament for political ends, suggesting without evidence that the situation is at least partly the fault of the Biden-Harris administration for being unwilling to provide him the protection he needs to travel freely and meet voters on his terms.

Trump approaches election day as simultaneously a subject of federal prosecution, a candidate who has threatened to fire much of the federal bureaucracy and a target dependent for information and protection on the same agencies likely to endure his retribution should he take office again.

Interviews with people close to Trump and officials across the federal government reveal how deeply unnerved the Trump campaign has been by the assassination attempts and the Iranian threats and hacking – and how the US security apparatus has responded.

At the same time, as Trump attacks and politicises the agencies charged with both investigating the threats and protecting him, officials in the Biden White House and at the Secret Service worry that he is laying the groundwork to blame them should he lose the election.

The result is a complex mix of security and politics never seen in any previous election, and one laced with tension.

The intelligence agencies that Trump has long scorned have assessed that the failed attempt on Trump’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July, increased Iran’s confidence that the former president could be successfully targeted.

But the same agencies are doubtful that Iran has the capability to pull off such a plot and so far do not see any connection between the hacking of the e-mails and any planning to kill Trump.

Trump campaign officials, however, remain worried about such a link and are infuriated that, in their view, federal agencies are not taking Iran’s threats more seriously. Current US officials say the Biden administration has privately warned Iran that any attempt on Trump’s life would be viewed as an “act of war”.

The FBI has built a case against the Iranian hackers, who now face federal charges. The bureau has been careful to keep Trump and his aides up to speed on developments, and it has set up a filter, or “taint” team, to keep any politically sensitive information agents get access to during the investigation walled off from all but a small group.

But inside the Trump campaign, where suspicion of and resentment about the FBI runs deep, there is still residual wariness about providing investigators with access to phones – and growing anger that the hacking continued for weeks or months after being discovered and may still be under way.

Three months after a gunman fired at Trump during a rally in Butler, his relationship with the Secret Service has only become more fraught. He is demanding more protection and suggesting that the Biden White House’s unwillingness to provide him with everything he is seeking is part of an effort to limit his campaign travels and hold down the size of his crowds.

Citing the threats from Iran, Trump campaign officials have asked the federal government for, among other things, military assets that only sitting presidents get.

They have sought detection systems that could ward off a potential drone attack and a military jet similar to Air Force One or Air Force Two that could provide him with more security. For now, at the recommendation of the Secret Service, Trump is travelling on his own plane less and using multiple planes on some trips.

“In this heightened threat environment, some additional measures have been taken, but other measures recommended by experts – including members of Congress – have not been provided,” Mr Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, said in a statement.

“When President Trump returns to the White House, he will stand up to adversaries who make threats against our nation, and he will ensure federal agencies do everything they can to keep designated protectees and their families safe,” he said. “Public service is an honour and privilege. It should not cost a person their life.”

Intelligence meets politics

Early in the evening of Sept 24, the former president stepped into an FBI building in West Palm Beach, Florida, a short drive from Mar-a-Lago, his estate and private club.

Inside the secure room, Trump received a briefing from two officials with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence about the threats on his life from Iran, whose leaders have vowed vengeance for Trump’s ordering of the killing of a top Iranian general, Mr Qassem Soleimani, in 2020.

The former president was told that Iran’s goal is to assassinate him before election day, according to two people with knowledge of the briefing, which was arranged at the initiative of the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security.

Hours after the briefing, the Trump campaign issued a statement about the update that included a gratuitous political attack: “Make no mistake, the terror regime in Iran loves the weakness of Kamala Harris, and is terrified of the strength and resolve of President Trump.”

In the days that followed, Trump baselessly claimed that his rival, Vice-President Kamala Harris, was deliberately depriving him of security to hinder his ability to campaign.

This series of events highlights how Trump has injected his brand of grievance and blame-shifting politics onto the national security imperative of protecting him.

At the centre of the turmoil are the threats from Iran. Even more than the assassination attempts by two American citizens who appear to have been working alone, the combination of the hacking and the possibility of an attempt on Trump’s life by Iran has left his campaign deeply unsettled and in even more complex relationships with security agencies that he has promised to fundamentally overhaul if elected.

The former president has angrily asked people close to him why President Biden has not publicly threatened that the Iranians will be “blown to smithereens” if they attack Trump.

US officials said a version of that warning had been delivered. Repeated private messages have been sent to the highest levels of the Iranian government that the US and the Biden administration would view any attempt on Trump’s life as “an act of war”, the officials said.

US officials said the intelligence agencies were finding themselves in an impossible position with Trump.

They have a responsibility to view the threats clearly, but when they appear to minimise a particular threat, they risk enraging the Trump campaign or the candidate himself. And when they emphasise the dangers, they can be accused of trying to curb his campaigning or provide fodder he may use for his political gain, including to find a scapegoat for an election day loss.

While the Iranians appear intent on trying to kill Trump, they are also focused on influencing the American public to try to defeat him at the ballot box by unearthing embarrassing or compromising information. US officials said they believed the groups inside Iran involved in the hacking and influence operations were different from those involved in planning a potential assassination. But Trump campaign officials believe the hacking attempts against the campaign could be used to provide information to potential assassins.

The Biden administration faces an unusual challenge in keeping Trump informed about threats. More than any president in the modern era, Trump has contempt for the US intelligence community and puts little stock in its information or analysis. Trump has refused to take the classified briefing about worldwide threats that intelligence agencies traditionally have given to presidential candidates before the election. The former president, who was prosecuted for his own mishandling of national security secrets after leaving office, has claimed Biden officials will try to weaponise the briefing against him by leaking out details and blaming him for the leaks.

The FBI as both friend and foe

Earlier in 2024, a cyber-espionage unit linked to Iranian military intelligence accelerated its efforts to penetrate the emails and computer systems of advisers to the former president.

While there is no indication that any stolen information released so far has damaged Trump’s election chances, the hacking had a profound psychological effect on Trump’s team and further complicated the former president’s relationship with the FBI.

Trump has been attacking the FBI for years, since he learnt of the bureau’s investigation into possible ties between his 2016 campaign and the Kremlin.

In the current campaign, he has portrayed the FBI and Justice Department as corrupt agencies being used unjustly against him in two separate criminal investigations that led to charges against him – including one in which agents armed with a warrant descended on Mar-a-Lago to search for classified documents he had taken with him upon leaving office.

Trump speaks often about his desire to turn the Justice Department against his perceived enemies if he wins the election. Even before the recent spate of threats against him, he had called for the resignation of Mr Christopher Wray, the FBI director, whom he had appointed to the job.

The bureau has taken steps to reassure Trump’s team that it is friend rather than foe in this instance, including the creation of the so-called filter team to ensure that any politically sensitive information swept up in the hacking investigation will be held within the smallest group possible. An FBI spokesperson declined to comment.

Still, people familiar with the investigation say, Trump’s attitude toward the bureau runs hot and cold depending on the subject, the day and his mood.

After the first assassination attempt against him, Trump effusively praised the bureau, saying, “The FBI came to see me about the shooter. I think they’ve done a very good job.”

But that may have been the high point in their relationship. After the second apparent assassination attempt against him in Florida, Trump complained that the Justice Department and FBI were not pursuing the case aggressively enough and suggested state officials in Florida should take over the case. NYTIMES