‘Trump got the last laugh’: Hegseth says Iranian leader of Trump assassination plot killed in war

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that the Iranian commander who headed a unit the U.S. says aimed to assassinate President Donald Trump has been killed in the Middle East war.

“The leader of the unit who attempted to assassinate President Trump has been hunted down and killed,” Hegseth said during a brief on the Iran war Tuesday.

“Iran tried to kill President Trump. And President Trump got the last laugh,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth did not name the referenced Iranian commander.

Iranian officials sought to kill Trump and other U.S. officials after the 2020 U.S. assassination of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad.

There were two assassination attempts on Trump’s life during the 2024 presidential election.

The U.S and Israel launched attacks on Iran Saturday, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other leaders of the Islamist regime.

Hegseth and U.S. Joints Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Dan “Raizin” Caine said the latest war attacks have focused on eradicating Iran’s navy and air force.

“The Iranian Air Force is no more. Built for 1996, destroyed in 2026. The Iranian Navy rests at the bottom of the Persian Gulf,” Hegseth said.

“In fact, last night, we sunk their prized ship, the Soleimani. Looks like POTUS got him twice… In fact, yesterday, in the Indian Ocean, an American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo, quiet death,” Hegseth said.

The U.S. war secretary said the incident was “the first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II.”

Israel also bombed a meeting of regime leaders Tuesday as they were picking a successor to the killed Ayatollah. Israel and American bombings have also targeted Iran’s ballistic missile operations.

Iran has fired missiles and drones at Israel, U.S. military bases in the Middle East and countries aligned with the U.S in the region.

U.S. and Israeli officials are tracking to see if the volume of Iranian strikes decreases as the war continues.

Caine also released the names of four of the six U.S. soldiers killed thus far in the far.

All are from the from the 103rd Sustainment Command, U.S. Army Reserve, based in Des Moines, Iowa, according to the Pentagon.

The fallen soldiers were identified as:

Captain Cody Khork

Sergeant 1st Class Noah Tietjens

Sergeant 1st Class Nicole Amor

Sergeant. Declan Coady.