(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed Wednesday morning that the leader of an Iranian unit that attempted to assassinate President Donald Trump has been “hunted down and killed.” To date, the U.S. government has produced no solid evidence that Iran made any such attempt.
“Iran tried to kill President Trump. President Trump got the last laugh,” Hegseth said at a press conference.
BREAKING: The leader of the Iranian unit who was the architect of the assassination plot against President Trump has been KlLLED, per Pete Hegseth
“Iran tried to kill President Trump. And President Trump got the last laugh.” pic.twitter.com/YcWRSGYSo6
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) March 4, 2026
According to Israeli journalist Amit Segal, the Iranian killed was Rahman Mokadam, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ special operations division. Segal also said that it was Israel who killed Mokadam, and that Israel informed Trump about the matter earlier Wednesday.
No other details about Mokadam or his role in the purported Iranian assassination plots have been reported in the U.S. or Israeli press.
**Breaking news:** Israel has eliminated Rahman Mokadam, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ special operations division, and the man behind the assassination attempt on Trump on the eve of the 2024 presidential election.
Trump was informed of this in the past few…
— Amit Segal (@AmitSegal) March 4, 2026
There were two assassination attempts against Trump in 2024. One occurred on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania, when 20-year-old Thomas Crooks allegedly shot him in the ear from a rooftop during a campaign rally. The other occurred about two months later at Trump’s Palm Beach golf course, where North Carolina man Ryan Routh was spotted by Secret Service hiding in the bushes with an SKS-style rifle a mere few hundred yards away from Trump.
There’s no evidence that either attempt was sponsored by Iran.
The FBI did arrest a Pakistani national named Asif Merchant on July 12, 2024—the day before Trump was shot—for murder-for-hire in an alleged plot to assassinate U.S. officials, including possibly Trump.
However, Merchant’s actions can hardly be called an assassination attempt. Rather, the available evidence suggests that Merchant was the target of a highly controlled FBI sting operation, and that he never posed a threat to Trump.
Indeed, the U.S. was monitoring Merchant before he even entered the U.S. in April 2024, and officials let him into the country to track him and see where he’d go.
Moreover, an FBI informant drove Merchant around while he was here, and introduced him to two undercover agents posing as “hitmen.” Merchant allegedly paid those two agents $5,000 as a downpayment for his plot—which also included staging a protest and stealing documents—and he was arrested as he was attempting to leave the country.
Jury selection begins today for Asif Merchant, who was allegedly hired by Iran in a Trump assassination plot–a case widely cited as evidence of Iran’s threat to Trump.
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But a closer look shows that it was a highly controlled FBI sting operation. And Merchant may be a patsy🧵 pic.twitter.com/7RF92hBSV1— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) February 24, 2026
Merchant’s trial is currently underway and is expected to last through mid-March.
The FBI did accuse one other man of being involved in an Iranian plot against Trump in a criminal complaint filed in November 2024. In that case, there’s arguably even less evidence of a credible threat to Trump.
Indeed, the defendants in that case—Farhad Shakeri, 51, of Iran; Carlisle Rivera, also known as Pop, 49, of Brooklyn, New York; and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, of Staten Island, New York—were not accused of conspiring to kill any politicians, let alone Trump. Rather, they were charged with plotting to kill a U.S. journalist of Iranian origin.
While Shakeri is one of the defendants, the government’s criminal complaint shows that he appears to have been snitching to the FBI in recent months. According to the charging papers, Shakeri participated in phone interviews with the FBI from Iran on September 30, October 8, October 17, October 28 and November 7—ostensibly trading information in exchange for a sentence reduction for an unidentified individual.
In one of those interviews, Shakeri—who was deported from the United States in 2008 after serving fourteen years in prison for robbery—told the FBI that an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps official was pushing him to assassinate Trump.
I’ve read some dubious criminal complaints before, but this is truly one to behold.
It’s not even a manufactured plot. The FBI’s basis for claiming an Iranian assassination plot against Trump comes from one of the defendants charged in this case, who was essentially acting as an… https://t.co/vGzhCDgUvo pic.twitter.com/BD97CsWnaE— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) November 8, 2024
Shakeri further told the FBI that the IRGC official told him on October 7 that he had to provide a plan to kill Trump within seven days. Shakeri said he was unable to do so, and so Iran decided to pause its plans to kill Trump until after the election—which would have made it easier to kill him if he lost.
The FBI admitted in the charging papers that Shakeri is a liar, but said his claims about Trump “appear to be truthful.” Nevertheless, when the Justice Department secured indictments in the case a month after the criminal complaint was filed, there was no mention of the allegation against Trump.
Loadholt and Rivera both pled guilty to conspiring against the journalist, while Shakeri remains at-large in Iran.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
