Donald Trump has issued a chilling threat against those who leaked damning information about his Iran war to the press.
In a late Truth Social post, the 80-year-old said he would hunt down the “dirty dogs!” who have been repeatedly leaking damaging intel about his decision to start a war.
The president’s outburst is the latest sign of pressure inside the White House, where leaks have spiraled out of control, and Trump has lost control of the narrative being pushed from inside the building.
Trump shared a fawning opinion piece by conservative Washington Post columnist Marc A. Thiessen, which argued that the “disloyal leaks about Iran” prove how “courageous” Trump was to go to war with Iran.
Thiessen, a Fox News contributor who was a speechwriter for President George W. Bush, claimed that Trump had made “the bravest foreign policy decision any president has done in my lifetime,” by ignoring the advice of the entire military, political, and intelligence establishments to start a deeply unpopular conflict.
“Very interesting. A must read! Keep on leaking you dirty dogs! When we find you, you will pay a big price!!!” Trump wrote.
The war in Iran has dragged on for nearly seven months, with no end in sight. Opinion polls show the country is heavily against the war.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid the conflict has also caused gas and diesel prices in the U.S. to skyrocket. Trump has told millions of affected Americans that their financial hardships are worth it in order to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, even as the economic issue looks set to doom the GOP in November’s midterms.
Throughout the conflict, insiders have come forward with details from the Pentagon and the White House to show how the war could, and should, have been avoided.
This includes sources telling the Wall Street Journal last month that Trump was warned during an Oval Office meeting in February about the disastrous consequences of launching a war against Iran, which the president ignored.
During the meeting, then-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said that Tehran would close off the crucial Strait of Hormuz shipping route, and that killing Iran’s supreme leader would result in a replacement who would push harder for Tehran to acquire nuclear weapons.
Sources also made sure to note that Vice President JD Vance wanted a “more cautious” approach to dealing with Iran, rather than risking a war with “unwieldy consequences.”
Even before the war broke out on Feb. 28, Pentagon leakers told the Journal that there were concerns the Middle East conflict would severely deplete U.S. stockpiles and result in multiple deaths among both U.S. and allied forces.
In his piece for the Post, Thiessen argued that the leakers failed in their attempts to make the president look bad by going to the press.
“The message of the leakers is clear: Had Trump only listened to us, we would not be in this mess,” Thiessen wrote.
“In fact, these self-serving leaks actually show the opposite—by demonstrating what a courageous decision Trump made. Virtually alone, surrounded by naysayers, Trump acted to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.”
Thiessen added that by ignoring the warnings and following through with the deeply unpopular war in Iran, Trump avoided the mistakes of past world leaders who failed to take the “words of the monsters of history” seriously.
Thiessen cited Adolf Hitler laying out his plans for the Holocaust in Mein Kampf, Osama bin Laden issuing a fatwa declaring war on the West before the 9/11 attacks, and Russian President Vladimir Putin spending years forewarning of an all-out invasion of Ukraine.
“Trump’s attack on Iran was not a blunder; it was the bravest foreign policy decision any president has done in my lifetime,” Thiessen wrote.
“Trump acted despite the personal political costs, despite all the doves around him urging him not to do so, despite the unrelenting opposition of Democrats in Congress. He is the first American president to take the words of our enemy seriously—and act before they were able to kill millions. Even if it hurts him politically in November, he will be rewarded by history.”
