Iran’s assassination threats against Donald Trump have loomed over the president in recent days and are more serious than publicly reported, an upcoming book claims.
Axios reporter Isaac Isenstadt’s upcoming book, ‘Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump’s Return to Power,’ claims that law enforcement officials warned Trump in 2024 that Iran had placed operatives in the U.S. with access to surface-to-air missiles and that Trump’s orbit worried Iran would try to take out ‘Trump Force One’ as it was taking off or landing while on the campaign trail. Isenstadt previewed his book in an Axios article published Sunday.
The reported threats and concern of Iran’s threats against Trump hit a fever pitch in September 2024, when a second assassination attempt was thwarted at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, the book claims. Isenstadt reported that his book is based on his conversations with Trump’s ‘inner circle during his campaign.’
Fast-forward to Trump’s second presidency in 2025, the 47th president already has issued stern warnings against Iran. Trump said while signing an executive order imposing maximum pressure on Tehran earlier in February that he left special instructions if something were to happen to him.
During his first term in the Oval Office, Trump withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear deal, and reapplied crippling economic sanctions on Iran, escalating tensions between Trump and the nation.
‘That would be a terrible thing for them to do,’ Trump said on Feb. 4 of Iran potentially attempting to assassinate him. ‘If they did that, they would be obliterated. That would be the end.… There won’t be anything left.’
Trump survived two assassination attempts while on the campaign trail in 2024, including the Pennsylvania attempt that left him with an injury to his ear as suspect Thomas Crooks opened fire on the crowd of Trump supporters in July. The Pennsylvania attempt has not been connected to Iran.
The suspect behind the Florida attempt, Ryan Wesley Routh, wrote a book in 2023 urging Iran to assassinate Trump, the Associated Press reported in September 2024.
Following the second attempt in Florida, Isenstadt’s book, which will be released March 18, claims Trump’s team was on high alert, including his security detail putting Trump on a ‘Trump Force One’ decoy plane owned by Steve Witkoff to travel to an event shortly after the attempt. The co-chairs of the campaign at the time, current chief of staff Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, split up, with Wiles traveling with Trump on the decoy plane and LaCivita on Trump Force One.
