Days into the U.S.-Israeli bombardment of Iran, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said confidently that the leader of the Iranian covert unit that had planned to assassinate President Trump had been “hunted down and killed.”
“Iran tried to kill President Trump, and President Trump got the last laugh,” Mr. Hegseth boasted last week.
The White House posted a clip of the defense secretary’s comment.
But Mr. Hegseth did not identify the man. Neither the White House nor the Pentagon has clarified or provided additional details.
U.S. officials privately acknowledge that the story is complicated.
U.S. officials and others briefed on the intelligence said Mr. Hegseth was referring to Rahman Makdam, a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, who was targeted last week in an airstrike.
Mr. Makdam, whose last name is transliterated by the U.S. government as Moghddam, was also identified in Israeli news media as the target of the strike.
But American officials are divided on whether Mr. Makdam is dead. Some say Mr. Hegseth is correct — that the man was killed in the strike. Other people briefed on the intelligence said his death has not been confirmed by either the United States or Israel.
And officials say Mr. Hegseth’s statement that Mr. Makdam led the unit that plotted the assassination is somewhat overstated. Mr. Makdam has overseen that unit as part of his broader responsibilities, and has been involved in other repressive acts in Iran from his job inside the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps special operations division. But officials said there was not intelligence placing him in a direct role of plotting to kill Mr. Trump.
A representative for Mr. Hegseth declined to comment.
Mr. Makdam has been the head of intelligence for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ special operations division, according to American officials. In that role, he has primarily been responsible for internal security but also has overseen units focused on covert external assassinations.
Another I.R.G.C. official, whom officials interviewed for this article would not identify, is believed to be the leader of the external assassinations unit, including the plot to kill Mr. Trump. That official is believed to be alive, according to one official.
Israeli intelligence gathered the original information that Iran was plotting to kill Mr. Trump and passed it to the United States, according to people briefed on the information.
Not long before a gunman in Butler, Pa., shot and wounded Mr. Trump during his 2024 presidential run, the United States learned of an Iranian plot to try to kill him, an attempt at revenge for the American drone strike that killed an influential Iranian general, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, four years earlier.
The gunman in Pennsylvania had no known connections to Iran, but the sniper team that killed him was in Butler because of the Iranian threat against Mr. Trump.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Biden administration officials warned Mr. Trump’s team that Iran wanted to assassinate Mr. Trump.
A Pakistani man, Asif Merchant, was arrested in July 2024 on charges of working with Iran to kill Mr. Trump.
On Friday, a jury in Federal District Court in Brooklyn deliberated less than two hours before finding Mr. Merchant guilty of attempted terrorism transcending national boundaries and murder for hire.
Aides and allies of the president say that Mr. Trump does not like to discuss the assassination attempts on him, but that Iran’s efforts to kill him were a factor as he considered military options against Iran.
As defense secretary, Mr. Hegseth has presented himself as one of Mr. Trump’s most ardent defenders.
Mr. Hegseth, a former National Guard infantryman and Fox News weekend host, frequently praises his commander in chief and attacks anyone he views as not on board with the president’s agenda. At the briefing on March 4, he was at it again.
“When a few drones get through or tragic things happen, it’s front page news,” he said, adding, “The press only wants to make the president look bad.”
Julian E. Barnes covers the U.S. intelligence agencies and international security matters for The Times. He has written about security issues for more than two decades.
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