US President Donald Trump called for severe punishment of those who leak classified military information, days after authorizing the execution of Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people at a Texas military base.
Trump, who was campaigning in Bullhead City, Arizona, on Wednesday as part of an intensive nationwide tour ahead of the November midterm elections, recalled the story of an intelligence leak that he claimed had forced him to postpone the June 2025 American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, carried out by B-2 stealth bombers during Operation Midnight Hammer.
He continued, stating that people who leak sensitive military information should be shot, delivering the remarks just days after approving the execution by firing squad of Hasan, the former US Army officer convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009.
“Now leakers should be dealt with very, very strongly,” Trump told the crowd.
He then escalated his criticism, declaring: “The leakers are the scum of the earth.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced plans last week to livestream the execution, scheduled for December 3, with a military firing squad expected to carry out the sentence. The proposal has drawn criticism and sparked debate across the US.
Trump subsequently indicated that he would make the final decision on whether the execution would be broadcast and that the livestream could still be canceled.
Trump recounts sensitive information leaked
During his Arizona speech, Trump revisited his account of how sensitive information about Operation Midnight Hammer, the planned June 2025 attack on Iran’s nuclear program, reached the media before the mission was carried out.
According to Trump, the disclosure included the precise departure and arrival times of the American bombers.
“But they leaked that we were leaving at 12:07 from Missouri, and it was in the New York Times, CNN,” he said.
Trump said he subsequently contacted Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to discuss the potential implications for the operation.
“I said, ‘General, that’s not good, is it?’” Trump recalled.
According to the president, Caine replied: “Not good, sir, but we can do it anyway.”
Trump said he nevertheless decided to change the timing of the mission.
“So I called off the raid,” he told the audience.
The decision, he claimed, was particularly disappointing to the pilots who had been preparing for the operation.
“You know the unhappiest people were the pilots. They were miserable,” he said.
Trump went on to explain that two days later, he decided the attack could proceed — using the same departure time that had previously been disclosed.
“All right, good. Now we can do the raid. Let’s leave it exactly the same time,” he recalled telling his team.
“We used the exact same time,” he added.
According to Trump’s account, returning to the original timing meant the Iranians would be less likely to anticipate the aircraft’s movements.
The president presented the episode as an example of the potential consequences of leaking operational military information and as justification for imposing exceptionally harsh penalties on those responsible.
He did not present new evidence identifying the alleged leakers or independently establishing the circumstances of the disclosures he described.
Trump says the US has eliminated numerous Iranian leaders
Later in the rally, Trump returned to another theme he has raised repeatedly in recent days, joking that the US may have eliminated so many members of Iran’s leadership that Washington is now struggling to determine whom it should negotiate with.
The president began by listing what he described as the destruction of Iran’s military capabilities.
“Their radar is gone. Their anti-aircraft is gone. Their leaders are gone,” Trump said.
“That’s one of the problems. I might have gone too far. I don’t know who the hell to deal with.”
Trump continued his account of the successive losses suffered by Iran’s leadership, claiming that American military operations had eliminated multiple generations of senior officials.
“Their first level leaders are gone. They picked the second level. Their second level leaders are gone. They picked the third level, half of them are gone.”
The comments were delivered in a joking, boastful tone, rather than as an expression of regret over the American campaign.
Trump also claimed that he had been asked to refrain from targeting additional Iranian leaders and had agreed.
“They made me promise not to take out anymore, and I did. I promised them,” he said, without specifying who had made the request.
The president then joked that the leadership losses had made the prospect of assuming power in Tehran particularly unattractive.
“But nobody wants to be the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Trump said.
“We hear, we have conversations. We hear them. Who would like to be the president of Iran? Please raise your hand. No, I don’t want to be.”
Returning to the difficulty of identifying a negotiating counterpart, Trump repeated the joke.
“I probably went a little too far. I’m sorry, because I don’t know who the hell we’re dealing with anymore.”
Despite the seemingly apologetic language, the comments formed part of a broader speech in which Trump repeatedly celebrated the effectiveness of American military operations against Iran.
He also reiterated his argument that military action had been necessary to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
According to Trump, before the June 2025 attack, Iran had been just two weeks away from obtaining such a weapon — an assessment he presented as justification for ordering the strikes.
The president argued that the economic consequences of the confrontation, including higher gasoline prices, were a relatively small price to pay for preventing a nuclear-armed Iran.
Trump claims US control of Strait of Hormuz will bring fuel prices down
Trump also addressed the economic consequences of the continuing confrontation with Iran, asserting that the US had established control over the Strait of Hormuz and that more oil was now moving through the strategic waterway than before the conflict began.
He credited the US Navy and the American blockade, which he described as a “Wall of Steel,” for securing the waterway.
The president argued that the military operations had prevented Iran from threatening global security and suggested that energy prices would decline further once the confrontation ended.
“But that’s going to end very soon, and when that ends, your gasoline is going to go down to even lower than it was before,” Trump told supporters.
His comments came amid continuing tensions with Tehran and renewed American warnings against Iranian-backed forces in the region.