President Donald Trump reportedly shut down an Israeli plan to assassinate Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Trump has left the door open to formal U.S. entry into the conflict, but has been publicly urging peace and diplomacy instead.
On Sunday, Reuters reported that two U.S. officials confirmed Trump put a stop to Israel’s plan to kill Khamenei. Axios reporter Barak Ravid and Fox News also cited sources saying the same thing.
“Have the Iranians killed an American yet? No. Until they do we’re not even talking about going after the political leadership,” said one of Reuters’ sources, who they described as a senior U.S. administration official.
The sources said that the White House has been in constant communication with Israel since the strikes began three days ago.
The report states, “The officials would not say whether Trump himself delivered the message. But Trump has been in frequent communications with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was asked about the report during an interview with Fox News pundit Brett Baier.
“There’s so many false reports of conversations that never happened, and I’m not going to get into that,” Netanyahu said, neither confirming or denying the claim.
“But I can tell you, I think that we do what we need to do, we’ll do what we need to do. And I think the United States knows what is good for the United States,” Netanyahu added.
As The Gateway Pundit reported, just after midnight on Sunday morning, Trump had posted to Truth Social, “The U.S. had nothing to do with the attack on Iran, tonight. If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the U.S. Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before. However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!”
Later in the morning, Trump urged both sides to make a deal.
“Iran and Israel should make a deal, and will make a deal, just like I got India and Pakistan to make, in that case by using TRADE with the United States to bring reason, cohesion, and sanity into the talks with two excellent leaders who were able to quickly make a decision and STOP! Also, during my first term, Serbia and Kosovo were going at it hot and heavy, as they have for many decades, and this long time conflict was ready to break out into WAR. I stopped it (Biden has hurt the longer term prospects with some very stupid decisions, but I will fix it, again!). Another case is Egypt and Ethiopia, and their fight over a massive dam that is having an effect on the magnificent Nile River. There is peace, at least for now, because of my intervention, and it will stay that way! Likewise, we will have PEACE, soon, between Israel and Iran! Many calls and meetings now taking place. I do a lot, and never get credit for anything, but that’s OK, the PEOPLE understand. MAKE THE MIDDLE EAST GREAT AGAIN!”
President Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, testified in March that the intel community continues to assess that Iran has not resumed trying to build a nuclear weapon since the program was suspended by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2003.
Testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee on March 27 to provide the Intelligence Community’s 2025 Annual Threat Assessment, Gabbard stated in no uncertain terms, the United States intelligence community “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.”
“The IC is monitoring if Tehran decides to reauthorise,” Gabbard added.
The annual threat assessment is the consensus of the 18 U.S. intelligence elements making up the U.S. Intelligence Community.
Since the 1990s, Netanyahu has repeatedly claimed that Iran is on the verge of developing nuclear weapons, often citing short timelines for their capability.
In 1992, Netanyahu warned that Iran was three to five years from acquiring a nuclear bomb, a claim reiterated in his 1995 book Fighting Terrorism, where he predicted Iran would achieve this by 2000. He echoed similar warnings in congressional testimony in 1996, 2002, and at the United Nations in 2012, famously using a cartoon bomb graphic to assert Iran was less than a year away from sufficient weapons-grade uranium.
In 2018, Netanyahu presented documents, obtained by Israeli intelligence, alleging Iran’s secret nuclear program continued covertly after its 2003 suspension. In 2025, he justified airstrikes on Iranian facilities, claiming Iran could produce a bomb in “months.” These claims have consistently suggested an imminent threat, often offering deadlines that have passed without evidence of an active Iranian nuclear weapons program.
Since 2007, U.S. assessments have maintained that Iran halted its structured nuclear weapons program in 2003, with no evidence of a decision to restart it.
In 2012, Israeli intelligence, per leaked cables, aligned with U.S. findings, admitting Iran was “not performing the activity necessary to produce weapons,” despite Netanyahu’s public claims. Critics, including former Mossad chief Meir Dagan in 2011, have argued the prime minister’s warnings exaggerate the threat, potentially to justify military action or derail diplomatic efforts like the 2015 nuclear deal, which he fiercely opposed.
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