Washington.- Trump has been the target of two probable assassinations in a matter of months. Intelligence agencies have told him that Iran continues to threaten to kill him, and Iranian hackers broke into his advisers’ email accounts.
Those events have left former President Donald J. Trump and his staff afraid, frustrated and dependent on federal agencies to provide security for the candidate, and considering what Trump has long portrayed as a “deep state.”
Although Trump and his team also exploited his predicaments for their political ends, suggesting without evidence that the situation is partly the fault of the Biden-Harris administration for being unwilling to provide him with the protection he needs to travel freely around the country and meet with voters on their terms.
Trump approaches Election Day while simultaneously being the subject of a federal prosecution, a candidate who has threatened to fire most of the federal bureaucracy, and being a target who depends on the information and protection of the very agencies he is. They are likely to endure his reprisals if he is back in power.
Interviews with people close to Trump and federal government officials reveal the nervousness that has prevailed in the campaign over assassination attempts and Iranian threats and hacks — and how the American security apparatus has responded.
At the same time, Trump has attacked and politicized the agencies tasked with investigating threats and protecting him, with Biden White House and Secret Service officials concerned that he is laying the groundwork for blaming them if he loses the election.
The result is a complex mix of security and politics that has never been seen in any previous election and that includes tension.
Intelligence agencies that Trump has long disdained have assessed that the failed attempt on the candidate’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania in July increased Iran’s confidence that the former president can be successfully attacked.
Although the same agencies doubt that Iran has the capacity to carry out this plot and so far they do not see any connection between the email hacking and any plan to kill him.
Trump campaign officials remain concerned about that link and are furious that, in their view, federal agencies are not taking Iran’s threats more seriously.
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