President Donald Trump vowed to track down and hold accountable whomever in his administration leaked sensitive information about an F-15E flight crew downed by the terrorist Iranian regime and rescued at great risk.
When the initial report came out that U.S. forces had successfully rescued one of the two stranded Americans, of course the American press was happy to spread the news. But it turns out that initial report should not have gone out when it did, because it helped the Iranian regime identify the area where the other member of the crew was and endangered not only him, but all those who were involved in the elaborate but efficient rescue operation. While our men are safe now, the risks and loss of very valuable equipment involved make Trump determined to find the leaker.
Starting at around 22 minutes into the White House livestream of Trump's April 6 comments, the president talked about the interval between the rescue of the first stranded American and the rescue of the second a couple days later on Sunday. "We didn’t talk about the first [rescue] for an hour, then somebody leaked something — which we’ll hopefully find that leaker, we’re looking very hard to find that leaker — and talked about, there's somebody missing. They basically said that we have one, and there's somebody missing. Well, they didn't know there was somebody missing until this leaker gave the information," Trump explained. "So, whoever it is, we think we'll be able to find it out, because we're gonna go to the media company that released it, and we're gonna say 'national security, give it up, or go to jail.'"
President Trump Holds a Press Conference, Apr. 6, 2026 https://t.co/XwxShdYu3e
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 6, 2026
It is not clear which outlet had the leaked news first, though outlets that cited information from "U.S. officials" included The Guardian, CBS News, and Reuters, along with Israeli media. The problem was, Trump went on, "All of a sudden, the entire country of Iran knew that there was a pilot that was somewhere on their land, that was fighting for his life, and it also made it much more difficult for the pilots and for the people going in to search for him. All of a sudden, they know that there's somebody out there, they see all these planes coming in."
After that, the president said, "It became a much more difficult operation because [of] a leaker,...So, actually, the country['s regime], Iran, put out a major notice, you all saw it, offering a very big reward for anybody that captures the pilot. So in addition to a hostile, very talented, very good, very evil military, we had millions of people trying to get an award." This raised the stakes considerably, and Trump angrily called the leaker "a sick person" who "probably didn't realize the extent of how bad it was," but jeopardized national security nonetheless.
An Iranian state-run TV affiliate channel shared a police statement urging residents to join the hunt for the pilot of a US fighter jet shot down over Iran. pic.twitter.com/hwdQ6tpHov
— The National (@TheNationalNews) April 3, 2026
Related: Israel Hits Iranian Petrochemical Plant, Multiple IRGC Jihadi Leaders
"They put that man at great risk, and they put the hundreds of people that went in looking for him, because everyone now knows that we're going in," Trump emphasized. Fortunately, the rescue mission succeeded anyway, and Trump praised U.S. forces: "Over the past 37 days, America's armed forces have carried out more than 10,000 combat flights over Iran, unheard of, striking more than 13,000 targets. The F-15 we lost last week was the first manned aircraft downed by the enemy in this entire operation, with thousands and thousands of flights. [It] was a lucky hit. You know, eventually, you get lucky. But we got lucky, too, because we got both of them back."
He called the achievements of Operation Epic Fury and the rescue mission "a record that is unparalleled in the history of military air operations. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. It's such an honor to be involved with it." Trump recalled, "We were up late at night, and then we were waiting for those contingent planes to come in…they're waiting out on this farm, without a runway, with wet, crummy soil, sand, mostly sand, wet sand, and it eats planes alive, and we're waiting, and we're saying, 'I hope that one can land and take off.' And they came in like magic. Boom, boom, boom. One after another, it was like genius." Because when it comes to American troops, it's no man left behind.
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