Trump says leakers of military plans should be shot at Arizona rally

Remarks at the Arizona rally

President Donald Trump told a campaign rally in Bullhead City, Arizona, on Wednesday, 14 October, that people who leak information to the news media should be shot. The crowd applauded, according to The New York Times, and the event came ahead of the 3 November midterm elections. Trump said that in the old days leakers were shot, and The New York Times described the remark as an extraordinary escalation of his attacks on news gathering and on people who speak to the press. Trump put his view in direct terms.

In my opinion, leakers should be shot.

The Iran strike and the leak claim

Al Jazeera linked the remark to Operation Midnight Hammer, the surprise US attack on Iran in June 2025 during the Twelve-Day War with Israel. Die Welt and Handelsblatt describe the same operation as the bombing of enriched uranium sites at Natanz and Fordo and a nuclear facility in Isfahan. At the rally Trump suggested that the timing of the attack had been among the leaked information, and he accused the news media of putting military members in danger, singling out The New York Times and CNN. He claimed that the bombing campaign had to be rescheduled two days later as a result, saying:

They leaked the time we were leaving, the time we were arriving.

1. 2025-06US strikes Iranian nuclear sites in Operation Midnight Hammer
2. Oct 14, 2026Trump says leakers should be shot at Bullhead City rally
3. Nov 3, 2026Midterm elections

A disputed intelligence report

Several media outlets published findings from a preliminary Defense Intelligence Agency report that had not been released publicly. According to those findings, Iran was able to move some of its enriched uranium away from the bombed sites, and the damage to its nuclear facilities was more modest than Trump had asserted. After parts of the report became public, Trump blamed Democratic lawmakers for its release and wrote on social media:

The Democrats are the ones who leaked the information on the PERFECT FLIGHT to the Nuclear Sites in Iran.

He added that they should be prosecuted.

Leak hunt and the Iran leadership remark

Under Trump, the White House has taken aggressive action to track down leak sources, and staff in his administration and military officers have been asked to take polygraph tests, Al Jazeera reports. Die Welt reports that at the same rally Trump joked about having killed too many members of the Iranian leadership, asking the audience whether anyone wanted to take over the Islamic Republic's leadership. Die Welt recalls that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and large parts of the Iranian leadership were killed at the start of the war, in the joint American-Israeli attacks.

Reaction and what comes next

Bloomberg described the remarks as straying from Trump's economic pitch, noting that his attacks focused on press coverage of the Iran war. Al Jazeera noted that Trump has long had an adversarial relationship with the news media and has previously called for harsh punishment against officials who pass confidential information to outlets. The midterm elections take place on 3 November.