A post being shared on X claims that Israel was behind a recent assassination attempt on President-Elect Donald Trump.

It’s now being revealed that Israel tried to kill President Trump.
The so-called “Iran plot” is actually two American Israeli dual-citizens from New York. pic.twitter.com/zfG9RY8J3E

— Paul Kikos 🌐 (@PKikos) November 9, 2024

Verdict: False

There is no proof that Israeli officials were behind the thwarted attempt.

Fact Check:

Before former President Donald Trump won re-election on November 5th, he was the target of an assassination attempt that was foiled by the FBI. Three hitmen were charged in the plot to murder the former President as well as an Iranian-American activist plus two Jewish Americans living in New York City.

I am shocked. I just learned from the @FBI that two men were arrested yesterday in a new plot to kill me at Fairfield University, where I was scheduled to give a talk.

I also learned that the person assigned to assassinate @realDonaldTrump was also assigned to kill me on U.S.… pic.twitter.com/3dL8yzBpQl

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) November 8, 2024

A post on social media are claiming that Israel was actually behind the plot to kill Trump, stating that the “so-called Iran plot” is actually a “cover-up” for Jewish involvement. “It’s now being revealed that Israel tried to kill President Trump,” the post reads in part.

However, Check Your Fact was unable to find any information to corroborate this. The mastermind of the attempt is said to be Farhad Shakeri, an Afghani man that immigrated to the U.S. as a child but was deported in 2008 after a prison sentence he served for robbery. He is said to be currently on the loose in Iran. Two other men, Carlisle Rivera and Jonathan Loadholt, both of New York City, were arrested in connection with the plot.

U.S. officials claim that Shakeri was acting on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran. Shakeri was heard in telephone calls to be involved with the plot after initially becoming worried that the plot would be too expensive. President-Elect Trump has already survived two attempts on his life while on the campaign trail.

The original poster seems to be misreading the information in the tweet. The screenshot, from the website of ABC7 in Los Angeles, does not claim that the two Jewish Americans were involved in the plot. Those two unnamed citizens were the potential victims, not perpetrators.

Carlisle “Pop” Rivera, one of the men arrested, is a freelance welder from Brooklyn. There is no indication that he is Jewish, or has any direct relation to the Iranian regime or Israeli officials. A Google search for Jonathan Loadholt, the other perpetrator, turns up no information about his religious affinity.

The Daily Mail reports that the attempt on Trump’s life is retaliation for the January 2020 strike that killed Iranian leader Qassem Soleimani. Iran does not have an extradition treaty with the U.S., making it difficult for American officials to bring Shakeri to justice.