President Trump called for people who disclose US military secrets to face execution during a Wednesday rally in Arizona supporting Republican candidates in the midterm elections.
Trump’s remarks came as he criticized an alleged leak concerning the timing of Operation Midnight Hammer, the bombing campaign carried out last summer against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
“Somebody leaked, some sleazebag. They ought to go to jail and be shot. For the rest of their life, they should be in jail,” Trump told the crowd.
“They leaked that we were leaving at 12:07 from Missouri, and it was in The New York Times, CNN,” he said. “They leaked the time that we were leaving, the time that we were arriving.”
Trump said he contacted Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after learning about the disclosure. The two then agreed to alter the operation’s schedule, he said.
“I called off the raid,” Trump said at the rally.
Two days later, Trump said he and Caine chose to proceed. B-2 Spirit stealth bombers were dispatched from the same Missouri base and launched at the originally planned time, according to the president.
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Trump returned to the subject moments later, repeating his call for severe punishment. “In my opinion, leakers should be shot,” he said. “In the old days, we used to shoot leakers.”
He argued that revealing the timing of an attack could endanger a defensive mission intended to prevent another country from obtaining a weapon capable of killing millions of people in a single strike.
The comments followed Trump’s approval, one week earlier, of a military firing squad to carry out the execution of convicted Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan.
Hasan killed 12 US service members and one civilian and wounded 32 others during his November 2009 attack at the Texas Army base.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth has said Hasan’s execution, scheduled for December, will be livestreamed.
Trump also used the Arizona event to urge voters to support Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), who is challenging incumbent Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs in the state’s gubernatorial race, along with other Republican candidates in down-ballot contests.
Undefeated boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. joined Trump onstage and encouraged Americans to remain united while working to keep “this country strong.”
“America is the best country in the world. If I died and came back a million times, I would always choose America,” Mayweather said.
