‘Leakers should be shot,’ says Trump in escalation of attacks on news-gathering

Washington: US President Donald Trump said government sources who revealed information about military plans should be shot, during a grievance-filled speech at a political rally in Arizona.

“In my opinion, leakers should be shot,” Trump said on Wednesday (Phoenix time), prompting applause from the gathered crowd in Bullhead City. “In the old days we used to shoot leakers, you know?”

Even for a president known for his lack of tolerance for those willing to express dissent or question his power, Trump’s endorsement of having government sources shot marked an extraordinary escalation of his attacks on news-gathering and those willing to speak to the press.

It was unclear which military operation Trump was referring to, although he appeared to be describing the bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities last year.

After describing the “totally stealth” B-2 bombers that dropped “very large bombs” on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June 2025, Trump claimed that someone had tipped off the news media that the United States was preparing to launch an attack.

“They ought to go to jail or be shot,” Trump said.

It was not the first time Trump has railed against government sources. When he first entered office, he promised to catch the “low-life leakers” who provided the news media with information about his administration’s ties to Russia. Alyssa Farah Griffin, a White House official in Trump’s first term, told a Mediaite podcast that she had heard Trump talk about how a staff member who leaked should be executed.

Trump campaigned on restoring use of the federal death penalty after the Biden administration imposed a moratorium on the practice. This month, he approved the first legally sanctioned public execution in America since 1936, clearing the way for Nidal Malik Hasan to be killed by firing squad on December 3.

His administration announced that the execution of Hasan, an army psychiatrist who gunned down 13 of his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009, would be livestreamed. Trump later said that he had “absolutely” agreed to the idea, but added that the plan could change.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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