From Soleimani to Khamenei to Turkey: The war may end. Iran’s threat to Trump may not

Dubai: Wars can end. Ceasefires can be signed. Governments can return to the negotiating table. But the enmity between Iran and US President Donald Trump may prove much harder to extinguish.

That is perhaps the larger message from the extraordinary revelation that Trump was secretly spirited out of Turkey aboard a military aircraft after US officials received intelligence about a possible Iranian threat during last month’s Nato summit.

The operation itself was remarkable. Trump publicly boarded Air Force One, was secretly removed using an airport catering vehicle and flown to Britain aboard another military aircraft while the presidential jet became a decoy.

US officials considered the threat serious enough to take extraordinary precautions. CNN reported that the secret transfer demonstrated how seriously the Secret Service and military viewed the danger.

But beyond the drama of Trump’s escape lies a more difficult question for Washington.

If Iran has been severely weakened after months of war, why does the United States still consider Tehran capable of posing such a serious threat to its president?

‘I got him before he got me’

The confrontation between Trump and Iran has acquired an unusually personal dimension.

The day after Trump launched the US military campaign against Iran in February, he explicitly connected the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with previous Iranian threats and alleged plots against him.

“I got him before he got me. They tried twice. Well, I got him first,” Trump told ABC correspondent Jonathan Karl in a telephone conversation.

The comment offered a striking glimpse into how Trump viewed the confrontation — not simply as a geopolitical struggle between Washington and Tehran, but against the backdrop of years of threats against him personally.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth reinforced that message the following month.

“Iran tried to kill President Trump, and President Trump got the last laugh,” Hegseth said in March, according to the BBC. He said an Iranian who allegedly headed an assassination unit had been killed in US strikes.

It began long before this war

The roots of Trump’s personal confrontation with Tehran stretch back to his first presidency.

In January 2020, Trump ordered the US strike that killed Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force.

Iran vowed revenge, and threats against Trump and former members of his administration persisted long after he left office.

US authorities subsequently uncovered alleged Iranian-linked plots against Trump.

Then came the current war.

The killing of Khamenei and other senior Iranian figures added another layer to a cycle of attack, retaliation and threatened revenge that had already stretched across years.

Six years after Soleimani’s death, Trump was still being protected against what US officials regarded as a credible Iranian threat.

Victory claims meet a stubborn reality

That makes the Turkey episode significant beyond presidential security.

Trump has repeatedly portrayed Iran as militarily devastated and has spoken of US success in destroying key Iranian capabilities.

But weakening a state’s conventional military power is not necessarily the same as eliminating its ability to threaten individual officials through missiles, intelligence networks or proxies.

The wider war also remains unresolved.

The Strait of Hormuz continues to be severely disrupted despite Trump’s assertion that it is open, while negotiations between Washington and Tehran have repeatedly failed to deliver the breakthrough the president has predicted.

US military resources have also come under pressure during the prolonged confrontation. Experts interviewed by CNN said depleted interceptor stocks could complicate Washington’s ability to support Ukraine and Gulf allies if fighting with Iran again intensifies.

So Trump’s covert departure from Turkey becomes more than an extraordinary Secret Service story.

It illustrates the difficulty of converting battlefield superiority into lasting security.

A weakened adversary can still be dangerous

Iran does not need to defeat the United States militarily to remain capable of threatening American interests — or individual US officials.

For decades, Tehran has developed missiles, intelligence networks and relationships with armed groups beyond its borders.

That helps explain why Trump’s security team could simultaneously believe that Iran had suffered enormous military damage while treating intelligence about a possible attack against him with utmost seriousness.

Indeed, Republican Congressman Nathaniel Moran told CNN this week that the US military campaign had damaged Iran’s nuclear capabilities but acknowledged that a danger remained.

“There is a continuing threat,” Moran said.

That distinction is crucial.

Military strength can destroy installations, weapons and command structures. It cannot necessarily erase an adversary’s desire for revenge — or every means available to pursue it.

The war after the war

Trump has made clear that an attempt on his life would carry enormous consequences.

In July, he threatened overwhelming retaliation if Iran attempted or succeeded in assassinating him.

Yet even if Washington and Tehran eventually agree on an end to the fighting, the personal confrontation may be much harder to settle.

Soleimani was killed in 2020. Iranian threats against Trump persisted.

Khamenei was killed in 2026. The hostility deepened.

Then, in July, US security officials considered the danger serious enough to disguise the president’s movements and secretly fly him out of a NATO ally.

That sequence points to perhaps the most troubling lesson of the episode.

Wars have formal beginnings and endings. Agreements can stop armies from fighting and reopen diplomatic channels.

But they cannot automatically erase memory, grievance or the desire for retaliation.

For Trump and Iran, the threat may outlive the war itself.