Since Feb. 28, 2026, when U.S. and Israeli forces killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in strikes on Tehran, President Donald Trump has framed the operation in deeply personal terms — as payback for the Iranian government’s documented attempts on his own life. “I got him before he got me,” Trump told ABC News. That threat environment stretches back further than most realize.
In November 2024, federal authorities arrested Manuel Tamayo-Torres, a 45-year-old Tolleson, Arizona man, for allegedly threatening to kill Trump and his family members. Tamayo-Torres was apprehended in San Diego on Nov. 25, 2024, following a series of threatening videos posted on social media where he appeared holding firearms.
A federal grand jury subsequently indicted Tamayo-Torres on seven counts, including threats against the president, interstate threatening communications, and possession of a firearm by a person subject to an order of protection.
Tamayo-Torres had been posting several videos on Facebook for months, making accusations against Trump of kidnapping and sex trafficking his children. However, it remains uncertain whether Tamayo-Torres indeed has any children. In a video posted on Nov. 21, he declared, “[Y]ou’re gonna die. [Y]our son’s gonna die. Your whole family is going to die… I’m going to put a hole in your face.”
In a separate video dated Aug. 23, Tamayo-Torres recorded himself at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, during a Trump rally. He claimed to have witnessed Trump and Secret Service agents allegedly kidnapping his daughter for sex trafficking.
Apart from the threats, Tamayo-Torres has been charged with making false statements while purchasing firearms. He lied on federal forms in 2023 when attempting to purchase a pistol from a Phoenix, Arizona gun store. Despite a 2003 assault conviction in San Diego, he denied having any previous felony convictions. Federal records also show that in July 2023, an Arizona court issued an order of protection against Tamayo-Torres, prohibiting him from contacting his ex-wife — a fact he also concealed on the federal firearms forms.
The arrest occurred amid a rising number of threats aimed at Trump and those in his inner circle. Around the time of the arrest, several of Trump’s Cabinet nominees and appointees were also targeted with bomb threats and “swatting” attacks, where false reports are made to trigger an armed law enforcement response. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that these incidents were under active federal investigation.
The figures targeted include U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, who had been nominated as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations before Trump withdrew her nomination in March 2025 to preserve the GOP’s slim House majority, and Matt Gaetz, Trump’s initial choice for attorney general (Gaetz subsequently declined the post). Federal authorities moved promptly to investigate the incidents and ensure the safety of those involved.
During his 2024 presidential campaign, President Donald Trump was the target of two assassination attempts, one of which grazed his right ear and killed a supporter in the audience. The incident occurred in July, during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a gunman armed with an AR–15–style rifle fired eight rounds from a distance of 400 feet. A Secret Service sniper intervened before further harm could occur.
In September, a separate incident occurred near Trump’s Florida golf course, where Ryan Routh, a suspect armed with an AK-style rifle, concealed himself for nearly 12 hours in the bushes along the course perimeter. A Secret Service agent spotted the rifle in the tree line and opened fire; Routh fled without firing a shot at Trump. Routh was found guilty on all counts in September 2025 and sentenced to life in prison on Feb. 4, 2026.
The IRGC network prosecutors linked to assassination plots against Trump has also faced prosecution in related cases. On Jan. 28, 2026, Carlisle Rivera, a Brooklyn man and convicted murderer, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for his role in a murder-for-hire plot directed by the Iranian government targeting journalist and dissident Masih Alinejad — a case tied to the same IRGC operative, Farhad Shakeri, who was charged with directing assassination plots against Trump himself in the lead-up to the 2024 election — the same network U.S. officials cited as part of the backdrop to the March 2026 strikes on Iran. Co-defendant Jonathon Loadholt, a Staten Island man, pleaded guilty in January 2026 to conspiracy to commit stalking and conspiracy to commit money laundering, with sentencing scheduled for April 2026. Shakeri himself remains at large in Iran.
The cases took on new significance in early March 2026, when U.S. and Israeli forces launched strikes on Iran that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Asked about the operation, Trump told ABC News: “I got him before he got me. They tried twice. Well, I got him first” — a direct reference to the IRGC’s documented plots against his life.
The threat environment around the president has not eased since the Tamayo-Torres arrest. On Feb. 22, 2026, Secret Service agents and a Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy fatally shot Austin Tucker Martin, a 21-year-old North Carolina man, after he breached the north gate of Mar-a-Lago — where Trump was not present at the time, having remained in Washington — carrying a shotgun and a gas can — the most recent in a series of security incidents that federal authorities continue to investigate.
