Iran-Linked Operative’s Alleged Plot to Kill Ivanka Trump Is Uncovered

The New York Post reported on May 22 that authorities uncovered an alleged assassination plot targeting Ivanka Trump, the eldest daughter of US President Donald Trump, by an operative linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC. The alleged plot was described as retaliation for the death of Qassem Soleimani, commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force, who was killed in a US drone strike six years ago.

The newspaper said Mohammad Baker Saad Daoud al-Saadi, an Iraqi national, was arrested in Turkey on May 15 and extradited to the US. The US Justice Department charged him with 18 attempted terrorist attacks and assassination plots across the US and Europe.

Investigators found that al-Saadi had openly expressed his intention to kill Ivanka Trump as revenge against the Trump family. He had obtained blueprints of the couple’s $24 million Florida home, where Ivanka Trump lives with her husband, Jared Kushner. He also posted an Arabic-language warning on X alongside a map of the area, saying, “Even the Secret Service cannot protect you,” and “Our revenge is only a matter of time.”

Entifadh Qanbar, a former attache at the Iraqi Embassy in Washington, said al-Saadi had gone around saying after Soleimani’s death that “just as Trump burned our home, we must burn Trump’s home by killing Ivanka.” Al-Saadi viewed Soleimani as a father figure and was identified as a key operative active in both Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi armed faction, and Iran’s IRGC. He also obtained an Iraqi government diplomatic passport while posing as a religious travel agent, which he allegedly used to make contact with terrorist organizations around the world.

The Justice Department said al-Saadi planned and directed multiple crimes in March, including a Molotov cocktail attack on BNY Mellon in Amsterdam, a shooting at the US Consulate in Toronto and a bombing at a synagogue in Liege, Belgium. Ivanka Trump’s religious background as an Orthodox Jewish convert was also cited as a major reason she was targeted.

Al-Saadi is being held in solitary confinement at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where Luigi Mangione, described in the article as the killer of a US healthcare chief executive officer, and former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro are also being held. The White House has not issued an official comment on the alleged assassination plot.