Israeli Channel 12 reported Wednesday that the Israeli military has eliminated Rahman Mokadam, identified as the head of the IRGC’s Special Operations Division and the alleged architect behind a sophisticated Iranian plot to assassinate Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
**Breaking news:** Israel has eliminated Rahman Mokadam, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ special operations division, and the man behind the assassination attempt on Trump on the eve of the 2024 presidential election.
Trump was informed of this in the past few…
— Amit Segal (@AmitSegal) March 4, 2026
BREAKING: Israeli Channel 12 reports that Israel has eliminated Rahman Mokadam, head of the special operations division of the Revolutionary Guards, who was allegedly behind the assassination attempt on Trump before the 2024 presidential election.
— Intel Net (@IntelNet) March 4, 2026
Mokadam’s division had long drawn international scrutiny for overseeing unconventional warfare operations and extraterritorial “murder-for-hire” schemes.
Details of the Trump plot surfaced in November 2024, when the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed criminal charges against Farhad Shakeri, an IRGC asset. According to federal investigators, Shakeri—an Afghan national deported from the United States in 2008—was directed in September 2024 to surveil and ultimately assassinate then-candidate Trump.
Court documents allege that IRGC officials were willing to commit massive financial resources to the operation, with one official telling Shakeri that “money’s not an issue.” Prosecutors say the plotters initially sought a plan within seven days. When Shakeri indicated the timeline was unrealistic, investigators say the IRGC instructed him to delay the effort until after the election, believing Trump would lose and be more vulnerable as a private citizen.
“Shakeri has informed law enforcement that he was tasked on Oct. 7, 2024, with providing a plan to kill President-elect Donald J. Trump,” the DOJ stated. “During the interview, Shakeri claimed he did not intend to propose a plan to kill Trump within the timeframe set by the IRGC.”
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said Trump had been made aware of the assassination plot, adding, “Nothing will deter President Trump from returning to the White House and restoring peace around the world.”
The assassination scheme was not limited to Trump. Shakeri and two associates, Carlisle Rivera and Jonathon Loadholt, arrested in New York, were also charged with targeting outspoken Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad in Brooklyn.
Alinejad wrote on X, “I am shocked. [T]he person assigned to assassinate @realDonaldTrump was also assigned to kill me on U.S. soil. I came to America to practice my First Amendment right to freedom of speech — I don’t want to die. Thank you to law enforcement for protecting me.”
