President Donald Trump said the US has Iranians who are residing in the country “under watch” amid new concerns about the potential for domestic terrorism during the war with Iran.
“We’re watching them very, very carefully. We have them under watch now,” Trump said during an interview on Fox News Radio with Brian Kilmeade that aired Friday morning.
Trump, who has moved to tighten border security, conducted the interview on Thursday. He was asked about the potential threat posed by Iranians who crossed into the US under his predecessor, Joe Biden, and the danger of potential “sleeper cells” in the country, following a pair of violent incidents on Thursday.
A synagogue in suburban Detroit was attacked by a man who rammed his car into the front doors and then was shot by security. The Department of Homeland Security said it was carried out by Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, who the agency said was born in Lebanon, entered the US in 2011 and was granted citizenship in 2016.
In a separate incident in Virginia, the FBI said one person was killed and two wounded after a shooting at Old Dominion University by a suspect who authorities said previously pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State. The FBI is investigating the incident, in which the shooter was killed, as an act of terrorism.
Trump said more than 1,700 Iranians had entered the US illegally during the prior administration. Asked if the US was poised to move against any sleeper cells, Trump said such a move would be undertaken “legally, very carefully.”
“Got to be a little bit careful in a lot of ways, a lot of good people too. You know that’s the problem,” Trump said. “You got a lot of good people.”
Trump did not identify any particular threat from Iranians residing in the US. Still, law enforcement officials have been on high alert in recent days for any potential attacks since the start of the US and Israeli war on Iran. Incidents of antisemitism have risen across the US, and globally, since the October 2023 attack by Hamas, designated a terrorist group by the US, on Israel and the resulting war in Gaza.
Earlier this week, ABC News reported that the FBI had warned police departments in California that Iran could launch offensive drones on the West Coast. The outlet later updated that story to note that the information in that alert was unverified.
Trump in the interview downplayed that threat. Asked if he worried about such a drone attack, the president said, “I don’t worry about it, because if you did, you wouldn’t be able to function.”
“You can’t worry. You have to do something. And we watch everything at a level that it’s never been watched,” he said.
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