TNA Staff
The New Arab / August 13, 2026
US officials have indicated a belief that Israeli intelligence claims are often attempts to shape the president’s decisions, according to a report.
US intelligence officials are raising questions about Israeli claims that Iran was attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump, with the CIA expressing “low confidence” in the allegations, according to a report on Thursday.
The claims prompted Trump to evacuate Ankara, Turkey, last month in an extraordinary escape operation that involved him hiding inside a catering truck before boarding a military plane, according to The Washington Post.
A new report from the same outlet on Thursday said CIA officials did not find the Israeli intelligence “compelling”, a view that was conveyed to Trump’s team when the information was relayed.
Despite US intelligence officials’ scepticism, the president was evacuated first to the United Kingdom, where he later boarded an Air Force C-32A plane back to the US.
“The Secret Service has had three near misses with this president, so they’re not taking any chances. They did what they had to do,” an unnamed intelligence official cited by The Post said, explaining the decision to act on the Israeli intelligence.
Another source, a former official, said the Israeli warning matched “a broader pattern of Israeli intelligence reporting that some officials see as designed as much to shape presidential decision-making as to inform it”.
Israel’s attempts to influence US decision-making have come under increased scrutiny after Trump joined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in attacking Iran in late February.
The joint attacks, which came in the middle of negotiations over a new nuclear deal with Tehran, were launched in part on the basis of Israeli claims that Iran’s government was close to collapse.
The attacks followed decades of lobbying by Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders for tougher US action against Iran.
A New York Times report earlier this year said senior figures in the Trump administration, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, had warned the president that Netanyahu had “oversold” the threat posed by Iran.
Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday called for greater transparency over the intelligence and the evacuation operation.
“I am very curious about the extent to which the Israeli-provided intelligence was not only credible but independently verifiable,” Senator Chris Van Hollen told The Post. “I have no doubt that Iran would like to see the president gone, but this all seems a little fantastical.”
