“In my opinion, leakers should be shot,” Trump said Wednesday during a rally in Bullhead City, Arizona. “In the old days, we used to shoot leakers, you know, when they leak what time you’re going to attack a country.”
In the wake of the June attack, a leaked Defense Intelligence Agency preliminary report found that Iran’s nuclear sites had not been as damaged as the Trump Administration first claimed them to be and that Iran could still enrich uranium. Reports also said Iran may have also moved enriched material from the facilities before the attack.
Moments later, Trump pointed to the journalists covering his rally and said they were “almost as bad” as leakers. “They leak false information,” the President said. “That makes them a leaker, right?”
As a civilian flirting with the U.S.’s top job, he frequently lashed out at former National Security Agency intelligence contractor Edward Snowden on social media and in public remarks. Snowden’s leaks in 2013 revealed NSA programs that sparked a global debate about government surveillance. Trump, in reaction to the leaks, said that he was a “spy” who “should be executed.”
When a whistleblower came forward in 2019 with a complaint alleging that Trump was "using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country" in the 2020 U.S. election, Trump told the staff of the U.S. mission to the U.N. that he wanted to know who gave the whistleblower information. “That’s close to a spy,” he said. “You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart, right, with spies and treason, right? We used to handle them a little differently than we do now.”
Trump Administration tries to crack down on leaks
The second Trump Administration has since stepped up to limit leaks to the press. When reports of the U.S.’s dwindling ammunition stockpiles amid the war with Iran emerged, the Pentagon subjected dozens of civilian employees and military officers to polygraph tests to identify the source of the leak. Trump had called for the leakers to face long-term jail sentences.
The Justice Department has also charged alleged leakers: in April, the department announced it arrested a former Army employee, alleging that she transmitted classified national defense information to unauthorized recipients, including a journalist.
Trump has wanted others “shot” too
It’s also not the first time that Trump has floated having certain people shot .
The President has also previously pitched shooting migrants to keep them from entering the country. According to the book Border Wars: Inside Trump's Assault on Immigration, by New York Times reporters Michael D. Shear and Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Trump in March 2019 detailed extreme methods to keep them out, privately suggesting to aides that soldiers shoot migrants who cross the border in the legs. But he was told it would not be allowed. Trump addressed the allegations on social media, saying: “I may be tough on Border Security, but not that tough.”
Last week, the President approved what would be the U.S. Army’s first execution of a soldier via firing squad since World War II, and has even shown enthusiasm for livestreaming it. Trump, however, has since changed his tune, amid a chorus of negative feedback.
“There are two thoughts: don’t show it and show it,” Trump told reporters on Saturday. “‘Cause you know, by showing it, maybe other people won’t be doing what he did. So I’ll make a decision, ultimately. I know what the military would like to do, but we’ll make a decision.”
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