Florida Congressman Brian Mast, a known Israel First representative, is eating up a narrative from CNN national security Natasha Bertrand arguing that the government of Iran plotted to assassinate former President Donald Trump on American soil.
In a tweet that he posted on July 16, 2024, Mast declared the following:
It was just revealed that Iran plotted to assassinate President Trump on American soil.
We’re at the point now where a medieval ayatollah feels emboldened enough to try and kill a U.S. presidential candidate.
Our enemies don’t respect Joe Biden and his policy of appeasement.
This narrative is dubious at best. Trump suffered an assassination attempt on July 13 by a deranged gunman, which led to many questions about the Secret Service’s security protocols. However, the latest rumors about an Iranian assassination attempt takes attention away from valid questions about the security failure of July 13.
Let’s be real here. Why would Iran use a lone, freak from rural Pennsylvania to carry out this hit? Also, if the US intelligence community knew about this assassination attempt a few weeks ago, why was Trump’s security detail so lax?
Sure the Trump administration took out Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani, which should be condemned, but Iranian grand strategy on the world stage tends to be rational and restrained.
It uses proxies in the Middle East like Hezbollah to project power in its historical sphere of influence. However, whacking Trump would be short-sighted at best for Iran. Not only would it galvanize many Trump supporters in the US, this hypothetical assassination would create a power vacuum that would bring an even more unhinged neocon like Nikki Haley, Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton, etc. into the fold — all who would not hesitate in nuking Iran off the face of the earth for their Israeli paymasters.
This whole theory stinks as just another pretext to escalate tensions with Iran. Trump and co would be wise to ignore it and focus on securing the border and retrenching military assets abroad.