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Iran’s campaign trail threats against Trump more serious than publicly reported, book claims

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.

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Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Donald Trump (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/West Asia News Agency | Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)

“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.

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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.

“The boss ain’t riding with us today,” LaCivita reportedly told staffers on the flight. “We had to put him into another plane. This is nothing but a sort of test for how things may happen in the future.”

Staffers on Trump Force One reportedly worried they would be “collateral damage” if the plane had been taken down, the book alleges.

Three aides told Isenstadt that the flight was packed with “gallows humor galore” as staffers reportedly realized the severity of an alleged threat, dubbing the trip as the “Ghost Flight” and remarking the alleged threat was “some serious s—.”

Frmer President Donald Trump is rushed offstage after being shot during a rally on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on the excerpts from Isenstadt’s book, but did not immediately receive a reply.

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Trump’s campaign continued to face reported threats and scares following the second assassination attempt, including the Secret Service warning that a person might attempt to shoot at Trump’s motorcade after a Long Island rally on Sept. 18, 2024. In a separate incident, Secret Service agents shot a drone with an electromagnetic gun from a sunroof in one of the cars in Trump’s motorcade during a Pennsylvania campaign trip in September 2024, the book claimed.

Former President Donald Trump is assisted by the Secret Service agents in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

“Don’t f—ing hang out the window and take photos, because you’re a f—ing target,” LaCivita reportedly told longtime Trump advisor Dan Scavino during one trip on Trump Force One.

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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in January that his country “never” plotted to assassinate Trump, adding “we never will.”

The Justice Department announced in November 2024 that it thwarted an Iranian attempt to assassinate Trump, charging an alleged Iranian government asset in the murder-for-hire plot.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in January that his country “never” plotted to assassinate Trump, adding “we never will.” (Iranian Presidency/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)

As for the two assassination attempts during the campaign cycle, Trump instructed the Secret Service to hand over “every bit of information” related to the Florida and Pennsylvania incidents, he told the New York Post recently, arguing the Biden administration held back details.

“I want to find out about the two assassins,” the president told the New York Post Friday. “Why did the one guy have six cellphones, and why did the other guy have [foreign] apps?”

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“I’m entitled to know. And they held it back long enough,” he continued, referring to the Biden administration’s handling of information on the attempts. “No more excuses.”

Fox News Digital’s Alexandra Koch, Diana Stancy and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

February 10, 2025
Supreme Court to consider an effort to establish the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school

The Supreme Court will weigh an effort to establish the nation’s first religious charter school with implications for school choice and religious practices.

The court agreed Friday to hear two cases on the matter, which will be argued together — Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond and St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond.

In 2023, the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted to approve an application by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa for a K-12 online school, the St. Isidore of Seville Virtual Charter School.

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Oklahoma parents, faith leaders and an education group sought to block the school after the approval.

In a 7-1 decision, the Oklahoma Supreme Court found a taxpayer-funded religious charter school would violate the First Amendment’s provision on “establishment of religion” and the state constitution.

The Supreme Court will weigh an effort to establish the nation’s first religious charter school. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)

“Under Oklahoma law, a charter school is a public school,” Justice James Winchester wrote in the court’s majority opinion. “As such, a charter school must be nonsectarian.

“However, St. Isidore will evangelize the Catholic school curriculum while sponsored by the state.”

Alliance Defending Freedom Chief Counsel Jim Campbell told Fox News Digital the case “is fundamentally about religious discrimination and school choice.”

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“The Supreme Court has been clear in three cases over the last eight years that you can’t create a public program like that and then exclude religious organizations,” Campbell said. “So, we’re going to be arguing before the court that the state of Oklahoma should be allowed to open up the program to religious organizations.”

Oklahoma Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond originally challenged the school’s approval. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Campbell says the decision would give parents, families and the state “more educational options.”

Oklahoma Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who originally challenged the school’s approval, has previously said the school’s establishment is unconstitutional. His spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement the attorney general “looks forward to presenting our arguments before the high court.”

“I will continue to vigorously defend the religious liberty of all 4 million Oklahomans,” Drummond said in a statement released in October. “This unconstitutional scheme to create the nation’s first state-sponsored religious charter school will open the floodgates and force taxpayers to fund all manner of religious indoctrination, including radical Islam or even the Church of Satan. My fellow Oklahomans can rest assured that I will always fight to protect their God-given rights and uphold the law.”

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The Oklahoma case is one of several religious institution cases that have been filed in the Supreme Court.

In 2017, the high court ruled in favor of a Missouri church that sued the state after being denied taxpayer funds for a playground project as a result of a provision that prohibits state funding for religious entities.

Likewise, in 2020, the Supreme Court struck down a ban on taxpayer funding for religious schools in a 5-4 decision that backed a Montana tax-credit scholarship program. Most recently, in 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that a Maine tuition assistance program violated the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause for excluding religious schools from eligibility.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case, although an explanation was not given. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Campbell said given the court’s previous considerations of cases involving religious educational institutions, he is “hopeful that the Supreme Court will recognize that the same principle applies here.”

“You can’t create a charter school program that allows private organizations to participate but tell the religious groups that they can’t be included,” Campbell said. “So, we’re hopeful that the Supreme Court will make it clear that people of faith deserve to be a part of the charter school program as well.”

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Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case, although an explanation was not given. The Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments in April.

School choice has become a hot-button issue, particularly after the 2024 election cycle. President Donald Trump recently signed two executive orders on education, one to remove federal funding from K-12 schools that teach critical race theory and another to support school choice.

Fox News Digital’s Ronn Blitzer and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Haley Chi-Sing is a Writer for Fox News Digital. You can reach her at @haleychising on X.

January 31, 2025