The President of the United States, Donald Trump, stated on Wednesday that those who leak classified information "should be shot," during a campaign rally held in Bullhead City, Arizona, in support of Republican candidates ahead of the legislative elections on November 3.
"In my opinion, those who leak information should be shot," Trump declared to his followers, according to the EFE agency.
The Republican leader referred to the leakers as "the scum of the earth" and demanded that they be punished "with a lot, a lot of firmness."
The statements were made in the context of a military operation that, according to Trump, had to be canceled at the last minute after outlets such as The New York Times and CNN published operational details, including departure and arrival times of American bombers from Missouri.
The comments seem to refer to the so-called Operation Midnight Hammer, the U.S. attack on Iranian nuclear facilities carried out in June 2025, although Trump did not specify the name of the mission.
"When you leak the time you will attack a country and the reason for the attack is actually defense because you don't want them to have a weapon that can wipe out millions of people with a single shot," the president argued.
Trump extended his criticisms to journalists, whom he directly equated with the leakers.
"They are almost as bad as a leaker, as they spread false information," he stated, adding, "That makes them a leaker."
Sources consulted by U.S. media clarified that the statement was of a political nature and does not imply the announcement of any new legal penalties or legislative changes establishing the death penalty for these types of offenses.
Trump's words come amid a sustained escalation by his administration against leaks to the press. In July 2026, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the establishment of a joint task force between the Pentagon and the Department of Justice to identify and prosecute leakers, and in August, the Pentagon subjected around 50 members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to polygraph tests related to leaks regarding the alleged depletion of ammunition reserves during the conflict with Iran.
In April 2026, Trump had already threatened to send to prison the journalist who published classified information about a second U.S. aviator on Iranian territory, and the FBI arrested a former official from the Special Operations Command that same month, accused of leaking confidential information to a reporter.
The statements made on Wednesday also coincided with a legal setback for the administration: federal judge Timothy Kelly issued on the same day a preliminary injunction protecting the access of 78 journalists from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico to the White House, as the lawsuit continues stemming from the ban the administration imposed on those three outlets in September, accusing them of publishing "fiction and lies."
The rally in Arizona, a state regarded as pivotal in the upcoming legislative elections, is part of Trump's campaign to strengthen the Republican majority in Congress before November 3, the date on which the president himself had publicly ruled out any new attacks against Iran.
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