President Trump vowed to hunt down and jail the leaker who revealed that U.S. forces could not initially reach the second American crew member of an F-15 fighter jet shot down over Iran.
Speaking in the White House briefing room on Monday, a clearly perturbed Commander in Chief declared that the media's disclosure tipped off Tehran and directly endangered the airman’s life. Not to mention the lives of hundreds of troops searching for the missing crew member.
“We’re looking very hard to find that leaker,” he said. “They basically said that we have one, and there’s somebody missing. Well, [Iran] didn’t know there was somebody missing until this leaker gave the information.”
The President indicated he would pressure the media outlet that published the story to reveal their sources.
“We think we’ll be able to find it out,” Trump continued. “Because we’re going to go to the media company that released it, and we’re going to say, ‘National security. Give it up or go to jail.’”
🚨 HOLY SMOKES. President Trump just said a leaker AIDED AND ABETTED Iran, leaking to the fake news information about the search for an American airman
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 6, 2026
PRISON.
"When they did that, all of a sudden, the entire country of Iran knew that there was a pilot that was somewhere on… pic.twitter.com/jSdgBbewnl
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The leak, first reported by Israel’s Channel 12 and quickly picked up by U.S. outlets including Axios and the Washington Post, came as the wounded second crew member was fighting for his life behind enemy lines.
The information prompted a race between our military heroes and the terrorist regime.
Iran's state television, you may recall, quickly urged civilians in the area to hunt down the American airman, placing a bounty on his head. An anchor told residents to hand over any “enemy pilot” to the police with the promise of a "precious prize" if they do so.
“Those who succeed in capturing or killing hostile enemy forces will be specially commended by the Governor’s office," the governor of Iran's southern Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province announced, according to the BBC at the time.
“All of a sudden, they know that there’s somebody out there,” Trump told reporters at the briefing. “They see all these planes coming in. It became a much more difficult operation because a leaker leaked that we have one, we’ve rescued one, but there’s another one out there that we’re trying to get."
“So actually, the country Iran, put out a major notice — you all saw it — offering a very big award for anybody that captures the pilot,” he added. “So in addition to a hostile, very talented, very good, very evil military, we had millions of people trying to get an award, so when you add that to it, but we have to find that leaker, because that’s a sick person.”
This wasn’t just a leak — it was a direct assist to the enemy that turned every member of the IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps), not to mention every civilian looking for a quick payday, into a bounty hunter gunning for our airman.
Editor's Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.
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