Trump Needs US Military Protection Against Deadly Iran Threats

ANALYSIS – And get ready to hit Iran directly. Due to Donald Trump’s aggressive approach toward the terror regime in Tehran, Iran has been trying to kill the former president, and some of his former senior national security advisers, for a while now.

That very real threat has resulted in increased security for many of those at highest risk. Unfortunately, it’s not enough. Not for Trump, and not for all his advisors on Iran’s hit list.

They all need more protection. In Trump’s case it should be military protection.

Not only that, but the White House only recently warned Iran to stop or risk war with the U.S.

This also highlights the very real security danger created by the Biden-Harris open borders disaster and the team’s weak and feckless behavior toward the Mullahs.

You simply cannot fund and enable a terror regime like Iran’s with billions of dollars, while also opening our country’s borders to all sorts of criminals and terrorists, without risking extreme danger.

Trump has repeatedly asked whether Iran was behind the two gunmen who separately attempted to assassinate him on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, and on Sept. 15 at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida.

The FBI says that there is no evidence linking Iran to those attempts. But there are others with ties to Tehran.

On July 12, the day before Trump’s Butler rally assassination attempt in June, undercover FBI agents arrested a Pakistani man working for Iran who was seeking to hire hit men to assassinate an American politician, likely Trump or a top advisor.

Based partly on that arrest, Trump’s campaign team recently received intelligence briefings highlighting the danger. “Intelligence officials have identified that these continued and coordinated attacks have heightened in the past few months,” according to Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung.

“Law enforcement officials across all agencies are working to ensure President Trump is protected and the election is free from interference,” he added.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) acknowledged the briefing without addressing any specifics.

In response to this briefing, the Trump campaign recently asked for military support for the ex-president’s protective operations.

Trump advisers aren’t just worried about snipers or gunmen, they have grown increasingly concerned about drones and missiles being employed to hit the former president.

In 2022, the Iranian regime posted an animated video of a drone striking Trump and others while playing golf near his Mar-a Lago home in Palm Beach.

This is why the unprecedented request included military aircraft during the final weeks of the campaign, expanded flight restrictions over his residences and rallies, ballistic glass pre-positioned in seven battleground states for campaign sites and various military vehicles to transport Trump.

Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), a Trump ally who is on the House Intelligence Committee and the Butler assassination inquiry, has asked the Secret Service for military aircraft or at least additional protection for Trump’s own private jets.

This could include access to military aircraft with defensive systems to protect against shoulder fired surface-to-air missiles. 

CNN added:

The requests from Trump’s campaign also include access to Camp David vehicles for Trump’s primary motorcade as well as access to other military assets, such as drones with thermal monitoring.

In addition, Trump’s campaign asked the US Secret Service to increase stockpiles of ballistic glass across several key swing states that the agency now uses to encase Trump at his outdoor rallies.

And the campaign asked for more funding for local law enforcement officials who augment the president’s security detail and for additional administrative support from Secret Service headquarters.

Biden, when asked about Trump’s requests on Friday, said they should be fulfilled – “as long as he doesn’t ask for F-15s.”

“I’ve told the department to give him every single thing he needs … as if he were a sitting president,” Biden said. “If it fits into that category, that’s fine.”

The requests truly are extraordinary, no presidential nominees in recent history have been shuttled among campaign stops in military aircraft during a campaign.

While there has been no word from Team Biden-Harris or the Pentagon, about the Trump team’s requests, the Secret Service has announced some Defense Department support, as well as some enhanced security measures.

The Washington Post reported that Anthony Guglielmi, a Secret Service spokesman said that Trump is now receiving “the highest levels of protection.” 

The Post added:

“Assistance from the Department of Defense is regularly provided for the former president’s protection, to include explosive ordnance disposal, canine units, and airlift transportation,” Guglielmi said. The Secret Service is also imposing temporary flight restrictions “over the former president’s residence and when he travels,” he added. “Additionally, the former president is receiving the highest level of technical security assets which include unmanned aerial vehicles, counter unmanned aerial surveillance systems, ballistics and other advanced technology systems.”

Senior U.S. officials said it was unlikely the Trump campaign would be provided military planes based on the current intelligence.

One official said the other requests are being considered, but there are limitations on how many places the Secret Service can have bullet-resistant glass positioned at one time, and that glass is already being provided for his rallies.

Vice President Kamala Harris receives protection from the Marines as vice president, especially while aboard Marine Two helicopters and she flies on Air Force Two, both of which are military aircraft.

Providing a military plane to fly Trump would give him an official look that no challenger has ever had. It would also remind voters that he is under serious threat from a foreign enemy.

Meanwhile, as CNN noted: “Trump has started changing up his routine, taking different planes to events around the country and staying at different properties than he usually would as the 2024 presidential election nears.”

Trump’s security team has reportedly implemented these changes because it has lost faith in the Secret Service leadership following the two attempts on the former president’s life.

But the Iranian threats aren’t limited to Trump.

In 2022, a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was charged by the U.S. with plotting to kill Trump’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton.

The Justice Department said an Iranian national attempted to pay individuals in the US $300,000 to carry out the assassination. This, in revenge for the U.S. 2020 surgical strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian military commander of the IRGC’s elite terror group – the Quds Force.

Politico reported:

The Trump administration knew the killing of Soleimani risked bitter retaliation.

As the head of Iran’s elite paramilitary arm, the Quds Force, Soleimani was the architect of Iran’s proxy wars across the Middle East. He was also a close personal confidante of the most powerful man in Iran, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“Soleimani was almost like a son to the Supreme Leader,” said Ali Vaez, an Iran specialist at the International Crisis Group.

The Pentagon assessed under Trump that Soleimani was responsible for the death or maiming of thousands of Americans during the U.S. war in Iraq. It claimed the Trump administration’s 2020 drone strike against him and nine other Iran-backed militants stopped “active plans” to kill more.

And as the New York Post noted:

Key national security alums of the Trump administration, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien have been forced to take security precautions as well.

In June 2022, members of O’Brien’s Secret Service detail observed two Middle Eastern individuals following him during a visit to Paris.

Iran’s kill list is dominated by those with direct ties to the Soleimani killing or high-up in the Trump national security team: Mark Esper, former secretary of defense; Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Paul Nakasone, ex-head of NSA and U.S. Cyber Command; Kenneth McKenzie, ex-head of U.S. Central Command; Mike Pompeo, former secretary of state and Brian Hook, the State Department’s special representative for Iran.

In response, the Departments of Defense and State are providing an unprecedented degree of protection for some of these former agency officials whom Iran is seeking to kill, reportedly costing the federal government close to $150 million per year.

Sadly, only a few top advisors are getting government protection under Biden-Harris.

Politico reported:

But former National Security Council officials who some say are also on Iran’s hit list are largely on their own. Since they worked for the White House, they believe they should draw their protection from the Secret Service. The beleaguered agency has stepped up — but only in part. One former National Security Council official had a government security detail withdrawn without explanation. A second had to push to get that protection, and the others never got any support to begin with.

Trump has called for a more forceful response to Iran, suggesting that Biden should “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.”

And that is the type of threat Iran understands but only if they see it as a real threat.

So, what is Biden-Harris doing to ensure Iran ceases attempts to kill Trump or other former senior U.S. officials?

Well, not much.

According to The Washington Post, the White House long refrained from publicly warning Iran, while leaking that it has quietly tasked his National Security Council (NSC) to warn Iran that the US would view any Tehran-backed assassination attempts against Trump as an act of war.

“We consider this a national and homeland security matter of the highest priority, and we strongly condemn Iran for these brazen threats,” NSC spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement.

“Should Iran attack any of our citizens, including those who continue to serve the United States or those who formerly served, Iran will face severe consequences.”

Unfortunately, any weak private efforts by Biden-Harris to dissuade Iran didn’t seem to have had much effect.

It is time to take the gloves off with Iran, but that’s not likely until after Trump gets reelected.

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