On Sunday, March 1, 2026, President Donald Trump proved to the world that true leadership has returned to the White House by delivering a line to ABC News’ Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl about his successful operation to eliminate Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying, “I got him before he got me. They tried twice. Well, I got him first.”
Karl spoke with President Trump on Sunday evening, sharing the quote in a post published on X, going on to explain that the comment referenced a 2024 plot to assassinate the then-presidential candidate. In November 2024, Farhad Shakeri was taken into custody in connection with the plot. Prosecutors in the case stated that they believe Shakeri was instructed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in September to tail Trump and kill him.
“The Justice Department has charged an asset of the Iranian regime who was tasked by the regime to direct a network of criminal associates to further Iran’s assassination plots against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump,” then-U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland went on to say in a statement released at the time.
According to Yahoo News, two New Yorkers were also taken into custody by law enforcement, ultimately being charged with a murder-for-hire plot after being recruited by Shakeri to kill Brooklyn human-rights activist Masih Alinejad, who ripped the Iranian government over their ill treatment of women. One of those individuals received a 15-year prison sentence in January.
The plot against the president was believed to be a response to the 2020 drone strike Trump issued during his first term that led to the death of top IRGC General Qasem Soleimani. Khamenei was killed during a joint strike with Israel on February 28, 2026. A senior official within the Israeli government confirmed the news of Khamenei’s demise before President Trump had an opportunity to announce it.
Trump eventually confirmed Khamenei’s death in a post published on Truth Social, referring to him as “one of the most evil people in history,” referring to the news of his being eliminated as “not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS.”
Khamenei, 86, was the longest-serving leader in the Middle East, having ruled over Iran since 1989. He played a big part in the 1979 revolution that led to the current regime’s control over every branch of the Iranian government, military, and judiciary. In a follow-up post about his conversation with the president, Karl stated that the operation was such a huge success that the strikes not only took out the ayatollah, but several other potential replacement candidates for his position.
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When Karl asked Trump who might be taking over the country now that Khamenei was dead, Trump responded, “It’s not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. Second or third place is dead.” Trump also told the reporter that a person inside the Iranian government had reached out to him, though he declined to provide details on their identity, going on to say that the individual survived the attacks and was “no longer reporting to the Supreme Leader.”