U.S. officials are increasingly concerned about Iran‘s persistent threats to assassinate Donald Trump and several of his former top military and national security advisors. It has become evident that Tehran is not merely making empty threats and is unlikely to relent in its intentions.

Since January 2020, following Trump’s drone strike that killed Qassem Soleimani, Iran has openly targeted Trump and those involved in the national security decisions surrounding that operation. The Iranian regime has released videos threatening the lives of Trump and others associated with the attack, called for their arrest and extradition, and issued ominous statements vowing revenge.

Recently, U.S. intelligence officials briefed the Trump campaign about the assassination threats from Iran, indicating that the danger has escalated in recent months. This briefing came after two attempted assassination plots against Trump over the summer, although no evidence has been found linking these attempts directly to Iran.

However, the scope and intensity of Iran’s plans to eliminate Trump and former officials connected to the Soleimani operation appear to be more extensive than previously understood, according to multiple officials familiar with the situation.

“This is an extremely serious matter,” stated Matt Olsen, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for national security. “Iran has unequivocally expressed its intent to retaliate against former officials involved in the Soleimani operation.”

While the government has taken significant measures to safeguard many of these officials, some individuals facing similar threats do not receive any protection from the government.

POLITICO conducted interviews with 24 individuals who possess direct knowledge of the Soleimani strike and the subsequent assassination threats. This group included current and former U.S. lawmakers, Secret Service agents, congressional aides, and senior officials. Due to ongoing threats or the sensitive nature of their roles, some participants were granted anonymity.

These individuals collectively described a significant and tangible assassination threat that extends beyond the alarming videos, bold statements, and intimidating social media activity that have captured public attention. They recounted instances of hacking and digital surveillance targeting former officials and their families, a series of personal FBI alerts regarding new threats from Iran, escalating discussions on how to safeguard individuals amid persistent plots, and attempts by suspected Iranian agents to monitor a U.S. official during an overseas trip.

Many of those who spoke with POLITICO contend that the U.S. government is still grappling with the Iranian threat and has yet to establish a reliable method to protect all individuals at risk for the duration necessary, thereby allowing Tehran to potentially act on its threats.

“There were several individuals — not a large number, but a notable few — who would likely be seen as significant targets and were receiving minimal support,” stated Megan Reiss, a former national security policy adviser to Sen. Mitt Romney, who addressed the Iranian threats during his time in Congress.

Recently, lawmakers have allocated additional funds to assist the Defense and State departments in enhancing the already unprecedented level of protection for certain former agency officials targeted by Iran, resulting in costs to the federal government nearing $150 million annually.

Former officials from the National Security Council, who are reportedly on Iran’s target list, find themselves largely unprotected. Having served in the White House, they expect to receive security from the Secret Service. While the agency has increased its efforts, the support has been inconsistent. One former official had their government security detail removed without any explanation, another had to advocate for their protection, and several others never received any assistance at all.

As a result, some of these individuals are now investing hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to ensure their own safety and that of their families.

The Secret Service has chosen not to comment on this situation.

Sean Savett, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, stated that the Biden administration views Iran’s threats as a “national and homeland security matter of the highest priority.” He also emphasized that Iran would face “severe consequences” should it target any U.S. citizens, including former government employees.

The assassination of an official with less prominence than the former president could still lead to a significant crisis between the two countries.

Rep. Jim Himes, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, stated, “The U.S. would view it as an act of war. While I cannot predict our response, it would certainly not be a favorable situation for the Iranian regime.”

The risk associated with the assassination of Soleimani

The Trump administration was aware that the elimination of Soleimani could provoke severe retaliation.

As the leader of Iran’s elite Quds Force, Soleimani played a pivotal role in orchestrating Iran’s proxy conflicts throughout the Middle East. He also held a close personal relationship with Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

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

The Pentagon, under the Trump administration, determined that Soleimani was accountable for the deaths and injuries of thousands of Americans during the Iraq War. It asserted that the 2020 drone strike targeting him and several other Iran-aligned militants thwarted “active plans” to carry out further attacks.

However, the Iranian government and some legal experts have raised doubts about the immediacy of those alleged plans. Regardless, Vaez characterized the strike as a significant violation of Iran’s sovereignty.

While the U.S. designates the Quds Force as a terrorist organization, it is regarded domestically as an integral component of Tehran’s military structure. “From their viewpoint, allowing the assassination of your highest-ranking military official to go unanswered is not an option,” Vaez remarked.

Iran’s initial reaction to the strike, despite concerns of a full-scale war, was relatively restrained: a ballistic missile assault on U.S. forces in Iraq, which did not result in any American casualties.

This prompted President Trump and many supporters of the strike to celebrate, believing that Iran had effectively backed down.

However, Iranian proxies continued to carry out a series of rocket and drone assaults on U.S. forces in Iraq for several months, which at one point led then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to threaten the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Concurrently, Iran began to prepare for targeted actions against specific officials.

The prospect of Iran attempting to assassinate a U.S. official in retaliation for the Soleimani strike was not something U.S. intelligence had foreseen, as many sources said.

Nevertheless, U.S. intelligence quickly determined that Iran was serious about pursuing such drastic measures almost immediately following the strike, based on both classified intelligence and public declarations. “It was pretty fast,” remarked a former senior national security official with direct knowledge of the Soleimani incident.

As time passed, these threats became increasingly overt.

“Those who ordered the murder of General Soleimani, as well as those who executed it, should be punished,” Khamenei stated on his social media account nearly a year later, in December 2020. “This revenge will certainly happen at the right time.”

A Life Sentence of Threats

Many experts expressed concerns that Iran does not possess the advanced capabilities necessary for executing a targeted assassination against a well-protected individual within the United States.

However, the recent attempts on Trump’s life this summer have raised significant doubts regarding the government’s capacity to safeguard even its highest-ranking former officials. Some observers contend that the U.S. government is only gradually adapting to a subtle yet dangerous threat posed by a foreign nation.

“This situation is unprecedented and fundamentally different,” remarked a former senior official from the Trump administration familiar with the assassination of Soleimani. “We have never seen former high-ranking national security officials, including Cabinet members, facing such a risk from a foreign adversary.”

Individuals reported ongoing Iranian surveillance activities—primarily, though not exclusively, conducted online—targeting a select group of more than six former officials. This includes efforts to monitor travel plans and daily routines, according to the same official.

Those identified as targets by Iran have also been receiving regular “duty to warn” briefings, where FBI agents inform them of specific threats to their safety.

“Sometimes the information can be quite detailed. They are aware of your location and daily patterns,” noted a former senior Pentagon official with firsthand knowledge of the assassination plots regarding the FBI alerts. “At other times, the information can be completely off base.”

“The Iranians may not be particularly skilled, but they are highly motivated,” the former Pentagon official added. “And they only need to succeed once.”

It remains uncertain when or how Iran might attempt to exact revenge.

Four individuals referenced Salman Rushdie, the Nobel Prize-winning author, as a pertinent example. Thirty-four years after the supreme leader of Iran issued a death sentence against Rushdie for a novel he alleged was offensive to Islam, an attempted assassin attacked Rushdie, stabbing him 15 times during an event in New York.

“When these fatwas are issued, they seem to last a lifetime,” remarked the first senior national security official.

Going on the Defensive

More than four years after the strike on Soleimani, the repercussions of that decision continue to cast a long shadow over the national security apparatus in Washington.

In addition to Trump, who is afforded Secret Service protection as a former president, at least seven former generals, diplomats, and civilian policy advisors from his administration are under constant government security detail. In some instances, a single security team may consist of approximately six individuals.

The list primarily includes those with direct connections to the Soleimani operation or who held prominent positions in the Trump administration: Mark Esper, Secretary of Defense; Mark Milley, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Paul Nakasone, head of NSA and U.S. Cyber Command; Kenneth McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command; Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State; and Brian Hook, the State Department’s Special Representative for Iran.

The continuous and comprehensive security measures represent an extraordinary level of caution for former national security officials.

However, this may not be enough.

Iran has imposed largely symbolic financial sanctions on a wider array of over 50 former officials from the Trump administration, including those currently under protection, and has issued Interpol “red notices” for their apprehension.

Some individuals believe the threat is particularly serious for a select group of those officials whose images appeared alongside Trump in a propaganda video from an IRGC-affiliated social media account in January 2023, which vowed retribution for “the perpetrators of General Soleimani’s martyrdom.”

Two officials featured in the video continue to serve in government, while three others have retired but now benefit from security details. The remaining four individuals, despite being highlighted in the video and having received at least two FBI duty-to-warn briefings regarding threats from Iran, do not receive any government protectin.

The common factor among these four individuals is their affiliation with the National Security Council.

In contrast, most officials who do have protection are from the Defense and State departments, both of which have seen increased funding from Congress in recent years to enhance their capabilities in countering Iran’s assassination attempts.

Recently, lawmakers allocated $40 million to the State Department for the protection of officials like Hook and Pompeo. Additionally, Congress expanded the Pentagon’s authority to reimburse former officials requiring security or to extend protection as long as there is an ongoing threat. This initiative is estimated to cost around $100 million annually, according to one congressional aide.

Pentagon spokesperson Sue Gough stated that the Defense Department “does not disclose details regarding security measures for current or former officials.” A spokesperson for the State Department indicated that the agency cannot provide specifics about its protective operations due to longstanding security protocols.

Meanwhile, the once-renowned presidential protection agency is facing significant challenges, having endured a series of scandals that peaked with two assassination attempts on Trump this summer.

“The Secret Service was ‘stretched really, really thin,’” remarked Reiss, a former aide to Romney.

Some experts contend that Iran would only be satisfied with the assassination of someone they consider a comparable figure to Soleimani, suggesting that not every official who has received threats should be in fear for their life.

“It appears that Iran categorizes individuals into two groups: those whose assassination would be seen as proportional retribution for Soleimani, and everyone else,” noted another former national security official.

Bolton has been a prominent advocate among U.S. policymakers for a stringent approach towards Iran, frequently adopting hawkish stances and disseminating his views through various cable news platforms.

It is evident that the Ayatollahs do not appreciate his stance.

Bolton recounted that he first received a duty-to-warn briefing from the FBI regarding Iranian threats against him around late 2020 or early 2021. This was followed by a series of increasingly specific and concerning warnings throughout 2021.

At that time, Bolton did not have a government security detail, but he recognized the necessity for one. In a meeting with over 15 officials from the FBI, Justice Department, and Secret Service the week before Thanksgiving 2021, he inquired about potential assistance. “I appreciate you informing me, but what actions will you take?” he recalled asking.

Secret Service agents suggested the possibility of establishing a dedicated security detail, and Bolton urged the Justice Department to present the request to the White House, believing it would carry more weight if initiated by them.

The Justice Department agreed, and in December 2021, the Biden administration granted Bolton a Secret Service security detail.

Unfortunately, this action came perilously close to being too late.

In early November of that year, a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps initiated efforts to hire assassins to target Bolton within the United States, as detailed in a criminal complaint subsequently filed by the Justice Department, when Bolton lacked protective measures.

Bolton emphasized that this situation is not merely “idle internet chatter” or the work of “some nut-case sitting in his mother’s basement.” He expressed his readiness to publicly address the threats against him, distinguishing himself from others who may remain silent, as his name has already appeared in public legal documents.

He also criticized the $300,000 bounty placed on his life by Iran as “insultingly low.”

Bolton is not the only former national security adviser who has faced potential threats from Iranian operatives.

Robert O’Brien, who served as Trump’s national security adviser during the Soleimani strike, traveled to Paris in June 2022 to accept an award from the French government. At that time, the Secret Service detail assigned to protect O’Brien noticed two Middle Eastern men following him throughout the city, according to a former Secret Service agent and two individuals familiar with the situation.

The last sighting of the two men prompted the detail to act swiftly, extracting O’Brien from a meeting at the Ritz and escorting him back to his hotel room, as reported by those familiar with the incident.

O’Brien chose not to comment on this matter.

The current status of the threat against O’Brien remains uncertain, particularly since he no longer benefits from government protection.

In a letter dated June 2023, then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle informed O’Brien of the decision not to renew his security detail, allowing him 60 days to “make alternate security arrangements, if you choose to do so,” as stated in a document. The letter did not elaborate on the reasoning behind this decision.

Some Republican lawmakers, including Mike Turner, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, contend that the threat to O’Brien is as significant as that faced by other former officials.

Turner expressed concern in a letter to national security adviser Jake Sullivan last January, stating, “It is a dangerous precedent to set, to not extend a former national security adviser’s protective detail while there are active threats against his life,” as noted in a document.

Additionally, there are claims that the risk to Trump from Iran is escalating.

In July, the FBI apprehended an Iranian operative who had entered the United States with the intent to orchestrate the assassination of “a political person” in retaliation for Soleimani’s death, according to the Justice Department. This individual, a Pakistani national, even conducted remote surveillance of a Trump rally.

“Let there be no doubt, the threat of the Iranian regime targeting [Trump] is more real than ever,” stated Marco Rubio, the ranking member on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

On Friday, the Trump campaign sought military aircraft, flight restrictions around his rallies and residences, and additional protections due to the Iranian assassination threat.

Savett, the NSC spokesperson, remarked that “President Biden has reiterated his directive that the United States Secret Service should receive every resource, capability, and protective measure required to address those evolving threats to the former president.”

O’Brien is financing his own security measures after being instructed by the Secret Service to do so. Protecting oneself from a nation-state is proving to be quite costly.

He is reportedly investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in private security, which includes hiring a personal bodyguard, installing advanced home security systems, surveillance cameras, ballistic protection, and implementing digital counter-surveillance, as confirmed by three sources familiar with the situation.

While officials assert that O’Brien’s security measures are comprehensive, they believe he should not have to bear this financial responsibility alone. O’Brien ranks second on the Iran sanctions list, following Milley, and was also featured second in a January 2023 propaganda video. He has received four separate duty-to-warn briefings from the FBI, according to one of the sources.

“Security should be determined by necessity,” stated Jason Chaffetz, a former Republican congressman from Utah and a close associate of O’Brien. “They keep informing him that he is among the top individuals facing ongoing threats. So, do we trust the intelligence community or not?”

The other three National Security Council officials who appeared in the January 2023 propaganda video are in a similar situation as O’Brien, expressing concerns that Iran may target them, with no agency providing support.

These officials, who worked directly under O’Brien, include Matt Pottinger, Trump’s deputy national security adviser, along with two senior officials from the National Security Council who managed the Iran portfolio: Victoria Coates and Robert Greenway.

Since leaving office, Greenway, Pottinger, and Coates have each received at least two duty-to-warn briefings from the FBI and collectively spend hundreds of thousands of dollars annually on both physical and digital security.

All three believe that the threats they face justify some level of government protection, albeit not to the extent afforded to individuals like Pompeo or McKenzie. They are concerned that without government intervention, Iran may perceive them as vulnerable targets.

Greenway remarked, “If a thief encounters five houses equipped with ADT security and one without, it’s not difficult to predict which one will be targeted for a break-in.”

They are calling on the government to enhance their protective measures—or ideally, to deter Iran entirely. In July 2023, the trio reached out to the Department of Justice requesting fundamental protections, including support for cybersecurity.

While the Justice Department did not provide a direct response to their inquiry, they did address Rubio, who advocated on their behalf. In a letter dated June 2023 regarding the threats faced by the three officials, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Slade Bond informed Rubio that the department was “aware of and deeply concerned about this category of threats.” Bond also indicated that the DOJ would forward Rubio’s correspondence to “appropriate government agencies” responsible for determining eligibility for protection.

The White House, which decides on Secret Service protection, did not answer inquiries specifically concerning O’Brien and the other officials who lack security measures.

Both Coates and Greenway reported that Iran had hacked their emails at least once since the strike on Soleimani, and the FBI recently informed Pottinger that hackers associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard had targeted him. In Coates’ situation, the personal email accounts of her two children were also compromised simultaneously. A digital forensic firm she hired independently confirmed that Iran was responsible for the intrusion, she stated.

“I can manage on my own, but my children are not accustomed to this,” Coates expressed regarding her kids.

Pottinger clarified that he was not directly involved in the planning of the strike on Soleimani, noting that Iran has linked him to the event based on a misleading 2021 news article.

He expressed concern that many Americans may not be taking Iran’s actions seriously enough due to their negative feelings towards Trump. “The same could apply to the Biden administration,” Pottinger remarked, asserting that the decision to strike Soleimani was a calculated and responsible action that ultimately protected American lives.

His primary concern is that adversaries such as China, Russia, or both Sunni and Shia terrorist organizations may feel encouraged by what he perceives as the Biden administration’s inadequate response to the assassination threat, potentially leading them to target American officials to intimidate them into altering their policies.

“We need national security officials who are resolute,” he stated.