Trump Says Government Leakers Should Be Shot

President Donald Trump said people who leak government information to the news media should be shot, making the remarks at a campaign rally in Bullhead City, Arizona, on Wednesday. He called leakers “the scum of the earth” and said they should be dealt with forcefully. Trump tied his comments to an alleged leak about the timing of a U.S. operation against Iran. He claimed information about when military aircraft would leave Missouri and arrive had been disclosed to news outlets, and that he rescheduled the operation as a result. The supplied reporting does not independently establish that the information was leaked or that it prompted a change in military plans. Trump did not identify the operation during the rally, according to one account. Other accounts linked his remarks to Operation Midnight Hammer, the U.S. strike on Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025. The sources do not independently confirm that identification. Trump said the operation went ahead two days later, when, in his account, the target did not expect it. The president also said leakers should go to jail, and criticized news organizations, accusing them of publishing information about the operation’s timing.