Iran spent six years plotting to kill Donald Trump.
He just settled that score in the most decisive way imaginable.
Now he's explained exactly why – and the four words he used are the only explanation any American needs.
Iran Spent Six Years Plotting to Kill Trump and Came Up Empty
This didn't start Saturday.
It started January 3, 2020, when Trump ordered the drone strike that killed IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani at Baghdad International Airport.
Khamenei vowed "harsh revenge" – not as a figure of speech, but as a strategic directive that Iran pursued for six uninterrupted years.
The regime put Trump's name on an official indictment list alongside 93 other Americans they blamed for Soleimani's death.
Iranian President Raisi went to the UN podium and demanded Trump stand trial in an Iranian Islamic court.
Khamenei himself said Trump would end up "in the dustbin of history" – after "paying for his crimes."
They weren't just talking.
In November 2024, the DOJ unsealed charges against Farhad Shakeri – an Afghan national and confirmed IRGC asset based in Tehran – who had been tasked with developing a plan to assassinate Trump in the final weeks of the 2024 presidential campaign.
The IRGC official running Shakeri told him money was no object and gave him seven days to deliver a kill plan.
Separately, Pakistani national Asif Merchant – whose federal trial in Brooklyn was still underway last week – faced charges in a second Iranian-linked murder-for-hire scheme targeting political figures including Trump.
Two sets of federal charges.
One clear directive from Tehran: kill Donald Trump before he wins again.
He won anyway.
And on Saturday, Operation Epic Fury answered everything.
What Trump Said to ABC About the Kill Order
Joint U.S.-Israeli strikes destroyed Iran's ballistic missile infrastructure and took out the IRGC commander, the defense minister, and the secretary of the Iranian Security Council – along with Khamenei himself.
Trump confirmed the supreme leader's death on Truth Social, writing that Khamenei "was unable to avoid our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems and, working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do."
Then he told ABC the quiet part out loud.
"I got him before he got me. They tried twice … I got him first."
Six years of assassination plots and murder-for-hire charges – collapsed into nine words that sum up exactly what just happened.
That's the only explanation any American needs.
The IRGC Was Running Murder Networks on American Streets
The same Democrats now screaming about "unconstitutional war" said nothing when Iran was actively running murder plots against a sitting president-elect.
Bernie Sanders called Operation Epic Fury "an illegal, premeditated and unconstitutional war."
Not one Democratic senator spent that kind of outrage energy on the federal charges documenting Iran's plan to assassinate Trump on American soil.
Sen. John Fetterman was the only Democrat with the honesty to break ranks – posting simply: "God bless the United States, our great military, and Israel."
Here's what the hand-wringers won't tell you.
This regime didn't just threaten Trump.
They ran active assassination networks using prison-recruited criminal associates inside New York City.
They targeted Iranian-American dissidents.
They plotted mass shootings against Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka.
They tried to kill John Bolton.
They tried to kill Mike Pompeo.
The IRGC wasn't a foreign policy problem to be managed with strongly worded letters.
It was a murder operation with assets on American streets and a standing order to take out the President of the United States.
Trump didn't start this war Saturday.
He finished the one Iran started in January 2020 – the one they escalated every single year since, the one they nearly completed twice in 2024 alone.
Khamenei vowed Trump would end up in the dustbin of history.
Instead, it's Khamenei who's gone – and Trump who's telling ABC exactly how it happened.
"I got him first."
Four words. Six years of context. Zero apologies.
Sources:
- Morgan Phillips, "Trump: 'I got him before he got me' after killing Iran's Supreme Leader," Fox News, March 2, 2026.
- White House, "Peace Through Strength: President Trump Launches Operation Epic Fury," whitehouse.gov, March 1, 2026.
- Fox News Digital, "Supreme Leader of Iran Khamenei dead following Israel's strike on Iran," Fox News, February 28, 2026.
- Just the News, "Iran's efforts to assassinate Trump highlighted in IRGC-linked terror trial," justthenews.com, February 26, 2026.
- ABC News, "3 charged in Iran-linked murder plots, with one targeting Donald Trump," ABC News, November 9, 2024.
- House Committee on Homeland Security, "Chairman Green Issues Statement on DOJ Charges for Iran-Backed Assassination Plot Against President-Elect Donald Trump," homeland.house.gov, November 8, 2024.
