Trump urges shooting of those who leaked military information at Arizona rally
At a campaign rally Trump called for the shooting of those who leaked information about June 2025 strikes; the move coincides with revived debate over executions.
President Donald Trump told supporters at a campaign rally in Arizona that people who passed information about US military operations to journalists “should be shot,” a statement that intensified an already heated debate over secrecy, leaks and capital punishment in the United States.
Trump's comments were made in response to reports of an alleged leak about the timing of American strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in June 2025, which he said had been provided to reporters by an unnamed source. As part of Operation Midnight Hammer last year, the sites at Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan were targeted.
“Those who give out information should be shot,” Trump said, adding that such people had been shot in the past.
Pentagon and executions back in the spotlight
The remarks come as the death-penalty discussion in the US has been revived. The Pentagon is reportedly planning the first military execution in 65 years, and Defense Secretary Pet Hegset has expressed a desire to have the execution broadcast live. Nidal Hasan, convicted for the 2009 massacre at the Fort Hood military base in Texas, is scheduled to be executed on December 3, 2026, at the site of the attack.
The debate gained further momentum after a failed execution in Tennessee, where authorities said convicted murderer Krista Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital; she had been due to become the first woman executed in the United States in more than two centuries.
Trump's call for violent punishment of alleged leakers adds a new flashpoint to discussions about press freedom, national security and the limits of government power, prompting reactions from legal experts and civil liberties groups while energizing supporters at the rally.
Photo: press material from the event
