Trump Rejected Israel's Plan To Kill Khamenei Last Year. What Changed Now?

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei was killed in a joint US-Israel strike on February 28 - a move Donald Trump had once turned down. LIVE UPDATES

It was June 2025 when Israel launched a massive attack on Iran in a bid to halt its nuclear program. According to reports, the Israelis had an opportunity to kill the top Iranian leader. However, it was Trump who waved them off the plan through communication with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Almost eight months later, Trump launched an attack on Iran with Israel and killed Khamenei, his wife, daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter. Many other top Iranian officials, including the defence minister, have also been killed.

So, what changed now?

Assassination attempts

Two days after killing Khamenei, Trump alleged that the top Iranian leader had tried to get him killed twice.

Trump had faced two separate alleged assassination attempts in 2024 - once in July when he was shot in the ear during a Pennsylvania rally, and later in September when a man was arrested for pointing a rifle at the US President while he was golfing on his course in West Palm Beach.

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Months later, Farhad Shakeri, an Afghan national who was deported from the US in 2008, was charged over an alleged plot by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to kill Trump. The Justice Department had termed Shakeri as an "Iranian asset" who was tasked by the Iranian regime to plot Trump's assassination.

Iran was going to attack first

Washington had received intelligence indicating the Islamic Republic was planning to either launch preemptive missiles or simultaneously with any American action against Tehran - allegedly "forcing" Trump to attack first, US officials said.

According to a senior official, Trump decided he was "not going to sit back" and allow American forces in the region to absorb attacks from conventional missiles.

"We had an analysis that basically told us that if we sat back and waited to get hit first, the amount of casualties and damage would be substantially higher than if we acted in a preemptive, defensive way to prevent those launches from occurring. We cannot continue to live in a world where these people not only possess missiles but the ability to make 100 of them a month in perpetuity, to overwhelm any potential defenses," the official said.

'Weakest ever'

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Trump decided to attack Iran as they were at their "weakest ever".

Slamming the Khamenei regime, Rubio said, "Iran is run by lunatics - religious fanatic lunatics. They have an ambition to have nuclear weapons. They intend to develop those nuclear weapons behind a program of missiles, drones, and terrorism that the world will not be able to touch them for fear of those things."

"This is the weakest they've ever been. Now is the time to go after them. The President decided to go after them, take away their missiles, take away their navy, take away their drones, take away their ability to make those things, so that they can never have a nuclear weapon. That's why the President made this decision. It was the right decision - and the world will be a safer place when these radical clerics no longer have access to these weapons," Rubio added.

What Trump said on Khamenei's death

Trump, who first announced Khamenei's death on social media, called him "one of the most evil people in history".

"This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty thugs. He 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," Trump said.

Trump believed this was the "single greatest chance" for the Iranian people to take back their country. 

The US and Israel carried out coordinated airstrikes across Iran after stalled nuclear talks and claims that Iran had resumed its nuclear activities. The strikes, named 'Operation Epic Fury', targeted many Iranian cities, including the capital Tehran. Hours after the joint attack, Iran launched missiles - many of which hit Gulf regions including Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, and Bahrain. Tensions in the Middle East continued to escalate as Iran vowed to avenge the killing of its Supreme Leader, and  US President Donald Trump warned it was "too late" for Iran to seek talks to "escape a war".