ADVERTISEMENT
The exchange also comes against a long and violent backdrop. Trump has been a recurring target of alleged Iranian plots since his first term, when he ordered the 2020 U.S. strike that killed Qassem Soleimani, the powerful commander of Iran’s Quds Force. That killing was hailed by Trump’s supporters as a decisive blow against a key architect of Iranian regional operations, but it also triggered years of threats and revenge rhetoric from Tehran and from figures aligned with the Islamic Republic. Reuters reported in 2024 that U.S. authorities had received intelligence about an Iranian plot to assassinate Trump, prompting increased security measures.
Those concerns were later reinforced by criminal cases brought by the U.S. Justice Department. In November 2024, federal prosecutors announced charges against Farhad Shakeri, who they said had been tasked by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards with surveilling and plotting to assassinate President-elect Donald J. Trump. The department said Shakeri remained at large in Iran. Then, on 6 March 2026, the Justice Department announced that a federal jury had convicted Asif Merchant, described by prosecutors as a trained operative of the IRGC, of murder for hire and attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries in connection with a foiled plot to assassinate U.S. politicians and government officials.
ADVERTISEMENT
