Washington insiders reveal full scale of Trump assassination panic... behind-the-scenes whispers about 'embarrassing' catering truck rescue... and Melania's private fears

By CHARLIE SPIERING, US POLITICAL REPORTER Published: 18:52, 16 August 2026 | Updated: 18:52, 16 August 2026 Hours after revelations about his secret flight from the NATO summit in Turkey went public, the president shrugged off reports that detailed the lengths that Secret Service took to keep him safe. When asked by reporters if he was worried about being hit by an Iranian missile, he dismissed concerns. 'I don't worry about anything, to be honest. Whatever it is, you know my attitude? Whatever,' Trump replied. But the ongoing threat is very much on his mind, sources told the Daily Mail, as the war in Iran continues and new threats against his life emerge. First Lady Melania Trump is increasingly concerned about the president's safety, said a source familiar with her thinking. She trusts, however, that the Secret Service is making the proper adjustments to keep him safe in light of the ongoing international threats. 'They want to take out the US leader, me,' Trump said at the NATO summit prior to his departure from Turkey in July, citing intelligence reports he had reviewed that morning. 'I'm on every single one of their lists.' So far, Trump remarked, he had 'been a little bit lucky' but cautioned 'that maybe doesn't last very long, because that's the way it goes,' he said prior to leaving for the summit. Meanwhile in Tehran, billboards with threats against the First Family have been spotted in recent days. One shows images of Melania, Barron and Ivanka Trump with their eyes edited shut and the word 'KILLED' labeled over them, while an AI-generated video highlighted the locations that Melania likes to shop at and how would-be assassins could target her. President Donald Trump walks from Marine One to board Air Force One in Turkey before he made the secret plane swap Melania, Ivanka and Barron are the targets of a new assassination threat from Iran Trump allies worry that the president is being 'misled by the threat to his life' posed by Iran. The idea of the president leaving a NATO summit in a catering container was 'embarrassing,' one source close to the White House told the Daily Mail.  The concern, another source noted, was that Iran is toying with Trump's jumpy security team, knowing that they are extremely cautious. Iran state media predictably used the report to mock the president's 'humiliation' as a result of 'fear of Iran's military power' and shared a meme of the president hiding in a food catering truck. The details of Trump's exit going public, one source worried, would make him less inclined to participate in the future. And reports that the CIA had low confidence in the intelligence detailing a threat to the president only confirmed suspicions from some officials that the threat was overblown. 'Iran is really trying to assassinate the president in Turkey, a country that they have a relationship with?' a separate source asked incredulously.  Sources told the Washington Post that the threats against the president's life were 'Israeli-derived' rather than US-generated and said it was considered 'low-confidence' intelligence.  Trump's military leadership was to blame, another source noted to the Daily Mail, suggesting that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and General Dan Caine overreacted to the poorly sourced intelligence. The Department of War did not respond to a Daily Mail request for comment.  However, a senior administration official strongly disagreed with criticism of the security plans in Turkey: 'As the president has said, he has faced numerous threats on his life, including ones from Iran, and every measure is taken to ensure his safety. There is no such thing as "overreacting" when it comes to the Commander-in-Chief’s safety – that is a moronic take.'  Air Force One parked on the tarmac in Ankara, Turkey, with the catering truck parked outside that carried Trump and three aides onto a decoy plane An AI-generated video last month highlighted the locations the First Lady likes to shop at and how would-be assassins could target her A threatening video published by The Tasnim News Agency, which has links to the Iranian military, shows how and where to potentially target First Lady Melania Trump. It notes Melania's favorite shops in New York and how to potentially poison the clothes there Trump is normally more resistant to Secret Service orders for the sake of optics. He famously ordered agents to let him get his shoes and pause to raise his fist in defiance before exiting the stage after he was shot in the ear by a would-be assassin in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024. He faced another attempted assassination at the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida, in September, two months before the election.  When he was evacuated from the White House Correspondents' Association dinner after a gunman tried to storm the event in April, Trump adamantly lobbied agents to return to the dinner and finish the event, before finally conceding to reschedule it. But the ongoing war in Iran has him taking threats more seriously. 'I go by Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to go in a different flight, a different plane, for safety,' Trump told reporters Tuesday.  The frequent security concerns, one Washington insider noted, were shifting the conflict with Iran into more personal territory. 'I got him before he got me,' Trump boasted to ABC News after Ayatollah Khamenei was killed in February. 'They tried twice. Well, I got him first.' One source close to the White House noted that the president is more concerned about the increased threat to members of his family, particularly his 11 grandchildren. Trump's 19-year-old granddaughter Kai is leaving soon for the University of Miami to start her freshman year, and is set to bring her Secret Service detail with her. His 20-year-old son Barron, meanwhile, is nearby the White House attending New York University at its Washington, DC, campus – and is always surrounded by Secret Service protection.  The idea of the president leaving a NATO summit in a catering container was 'embarrassing,' one source close to the White House told the Daily Mail Sources believe that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, left, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Generak Dan Caine, right, overreacted to the security threat in Turkey  The Secret Service revealed in July that they had investigated more than 10,000 threats to its protectees in the first half of this year, the head of the agency revealed.  And just this month, a man was caught with an illegal rifle and body armor while allegedly scouting Trump's Los Angeles golf club ahead of his visit there. 'A potential tragedy was averted,' said ATF Special Agent Kenneth R Cooper. The president occasionally reminds Iran publicly that if anything happens to him, he has set up a fail-safe plan for revenge. 'I've left instructions, if anything happens, to just literally bomb them at levels that they've never seen before,' he told the New York Post in July. The Daily Mail reached out to the White House for comment.