President Donald Trump is “at the top” of Iran’s assassination hit list, according to former White House national security adviser John Bolton. The startling claim came during Bolton’s recent appearance on Sky News’ program “The World,” where he warned about Iran’s extensive terror network operating in Europe and the United States.
Bolton, who served in Trump’s first administration as National Security Adviser from 2018 to 2019, asserted that numerous U.S. government officials have been targeted for assassination by Iran in retaliation for the January 2020 killing of top Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani in a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad Airport in Iraq.
“President Trump is at the top of their list of their targets,” Bolton stated during the interview. He emphasized that he himself is also on Iran’s hit list, though he made it clear Trump remains Iran’s primary target.
Soleimani was a major general in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and commander of its Quds Force, a division primarily responsible for extraterritorial military and clandestine operations. The United States had designated Soleimani as a terrorist. Prior to his death, he had risen to become one of the most powerful figures in the Iranian regime, second only to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
According to Bolton, the Iranian regime would recruit various criminal elements to carry out its assassination plots, particularly “Eastern European criminal gangs and others.” This aligns with recent intelligence reports showing Iran has increasingly turned to criminal networks across Europe to conduct attacks against its perceived enemies.
In 2022, the U.S. Justice Department issued an arrest warrant for Iranian national Shahram Poursafi for allegedly plotting Bolton’s assassination. Court documents revealed that Poursafi, a member of the IRGC, had attempted to pay individuals in the United States up to $300,000 to murder Bolton in Washington, D.C. or Maryland. Poursafi remains at large in Iran.
Bolton told Sky News that the threat against him and other former officials continues to this day. “I’m not the only person in addition to Trump,” he explained, adding that other former cabinet officials are also targets. Bolton stated that they were being targeted because of actions carried out in their official capacities serving the United States government.
The former national security adviser also warned that if Iran succeeded in targeting a senior U.S. official, it could be considered an “act of war,” calling such behavior “really dangerous.”
Bolton’s warning comes amid growing concern about Iran’s use of criminal networks as proxies for its operations in Europe and North America. Security agencies across multiple countries have documented Iran’s increasing cooperation with organized crime groups to carry out surveillance, intimidation, and attacks against Iranian dissidents, Israeli and Jewish targets, and Western government officials.
MI5 Director General Ken McCallum revealed in May that since January 2022, British authorities have contended with 20 Iranian-backed plots targeting UK citizens and residents. He noted that “Iranian state actors make extensive use of criminals as proxies” in these operations.
Intelligence agencies in Sweden and Israel recently disclosed that Iran has been using Swedish criminal gangs like Foxtrot and Rumba to target Israeli and Jewish facilities in Europe. The Swedish Security Service (Säpo) confirmed in May 2024 that “Iran has been for several years carrying out activities inside the country that threaten security,” often using criminal networks as proxies.
Since the 2018 foiled Iranian bomb plot in Paris, which resulted in the arrest and conviction of an Iranian diplomat, Tehran has shifted tactics to provide greater distance between the regime and its operations abroad. According to the French domestic intelligence service DGSI, Iranian intelligence has “adapted their modus operandi and now more systematically prefer to use people from criminal circles” for attacks on foreign soil.
The targets of these operations have expanded beyond Iranian dissidents to include American and European government officials who had roles in actions against Iranian interests, particularly those involved in the decision to kill Soleimani.
Despite Bolton’s current warnings about the Iranian threat, his relationship with President Trump has been strained since leaving the administration. Bolton has become a vocal critic of the president and once considered running against him. He described working in the Trump White House as being “like living inside a pinball machine.”
Adding to the controversy, Bolton revealed that Trump had withdrawn his government security protection upon returning to office in January 2025. “On what one might have thought was a pretty busy inauguration day, President Trump had the time to cancel my Secret Service protection,” Bolton stated. He warned that this action “sends a very bad signal to adversaries of the United States around the world.”
Bolton confirmed he has since made his own private security arrangements to replace the Secret Service detail. He expressed concern that Trump’s actions could “have an effect on decision making” for officials in the current administration if they see what happens to those who “fall out of Trump’s favor.”
The U.S. government has taken unprecedented measures to protect some former officials targeted by Iran, but others, particularly former White House officials who have fallen out of favor, have been left to arrange their own security.
In October 2024, the Biden administration offered a reward of up to $20 million for information on Shahram Poursafi, the Iranian operative charged with plotting to kill Bolton. This reward came after U.S. intelligence officials briefed then-presidential candidate Trump about an Iranian assassination plot against him.
The U.S. Department of Justice has charged multiple individuals connected to Iranian plots against American citizens and former officials in recent years, highlighting the persistent threat from Tehran’s network of operatives and criminal proxies.
