Trump says government officials who leak to the media ‘should be shot’

President Donald Trump told a campaign rally in Bullhead City, Arizona, on Wednesday that government employees who give sensitive information to reporters deserve to be shot, then added that life in prison would also do. He called such people "scum of the Earth.", according to NBC News.

Trump pointed to an Iran raid he said he had to cancel after someone revealed its timing, including a 12:07 departure from Missouri, to The New York Times and CNN. NBC News says he seemed to mean the June 2025 strike on Iranian nuclear sites, which went ahead regardless. He also gestured toward reporters in the crowd, saying those who publish falsehoods are almost as bad as leakers.

Since his return to office, his administration has pursued leakers aggressively. It proposed nondisclosure agreements for new and existing federal employees, and investigators gave polygraphs to about 50 Joint Staff members, The New York Times reported last month. After a January search of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson's home, a magistrate judge barred officials from examining the seized data; a district judge upheld that, and no further appeals followed.

Summarized by PolitiKool from NBC News’s reporting. Read the full story at NBC News →