Government employees sharing confidential information with journalists should face the death penalty, US President Donald Trump has said.
Addressing supporters during a midterm rally in Bullhead City, Arizona on Wednesday, Trump cited an occasion when the Pentagon allegedly had to put off an air raid against Iran after the bombers’ departure and arrival times were leaked to the press, including the New York Times and CNN.
It was not immediately clear which military operation Trump was referring to, although several media outlets conjectured that he was speaking about last year’s bombing campaign targeting Iran’s underground nuclear facilities.
“Somebody leaked – some sleazebag,” Trump said, adding that “they ought to go to jail and be shot.”
He argued that “in the old days we used to shoot leakers… [especially] when they leak what time you’re going to attack a country.”
“The leakers are the scum of the earth,” Trump concluded.
Since the start of the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran in late February, the Republican leader has repeatedly lashed out at government officials leaking information to the press as well as media outlets publishing such materials.
“Keep on leaking you dirty dogs! When we find you, you will pay a big price,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post last month in response to media reports claiming that some of his aides had advised him against attacking Tehran.
In August, the US president similarly accused leakers of making “treasonous statements,” saying that they were “being hunted down” and that “long term jail sentences will be sought!”
The tirade was prompted by a Washington Post report alleging that Trump was frustrated with US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth for providing misleading information about supposed ammunition shortages, especially with respect to long-range missiles and air defense interceptors.
Trump dismissed the allegations as “completely FALSE,” insisting that the “US has massive amounts of ‘munitions’,” with yet more being produced and supplied, as needed.
The New York Times subsequently reported that the Pentagon had subjected dozens of civilian employees and military officers to polygraph tests in a bid to identify the source of the leak regarding the supposed ammunition shortages.
In April, Trump demanded that the journalist who had reported the details of a rescue mission for the two crew members of the US F-15E Strike Eagle, which was shot down over Iran, divulge their sources or face jail. The US president suggested that the leak had put one of the service members’ lives in danger.
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