Trump Says Leakers Should Be Shot After Secret Plans Exposed

KENT NISHIMURA / AFP via Getty Images President Donald Trump has said leakers of sensitive data “should be shot.” The 80-year-old has sought to create a watertight administration after his first stab at the presidency was beset by leaks and whistleblowing.

However, if Trump’s words are any indication, it hasn’t worked—and he’s frustrated.

“Leakers should be, in my opinion, leakers should be shot,” Trump said at a campaign rally on Wednesday.

The crowd in Bullhead City, Arizona, agreed.

Cheers, shouts of “Yeah!” and scattered applause followed the president’s jaw-dropping statement.

He continued, “They should be shot.

In the old days, we used to shoot leakers, you know, when they leak what time you’re going to attack a country… leakers should be dealt with very, very strongly.

To me, they’re the scum of the earth.” Trump appeared to be talking about a leak about the start time of Operation Midnight Hammer, the joint effort between the U.S. and Israel to hit Iran with a flurry of airstrikes in June 2025.

“Somebody leaked, some sleazebag.

They ought to go to jail or be shot.

For the rest of their life, they should be in jail, but they leaked that we were leaving at 12:07 from Missouri, and it was in The New York Times, CNN.” He then turned his fire on journalists assembled at the rally.

“Those same people up there, they’re almost as bad as a leaker, because they leak,” Trump said.

“Oh, they leak false information.

That makes them a leaker, right?” Perhaps the biggest leak to rock Trump 2.0, however, was of one of his Cabinet member’s making.