President Trump told a crowd in Bullhead City, Arizona, on Wednesday that government leakers who reveal when American bombers take off "should be shot," tying the line to a claim that the New York Times and CNN published the departure time of a B-2 raid on Iran. The rhetoric is rough, but the underlying complaint, that a strike package's timing got into the press, is a real national security problem with a real federal statute behind it.

What Trump said in Arizona

At the Oct. 14 rally at Laughlin/Bullhead International Airport, Trump said, "Leakers should be, in my opinion, leakers should be shot. In the old days, we used to shoot leakers," according to Anadolu Agency's account of the speech. He said B-2 bombers were sent "to make sure that they don't have a nuclear weapon" and that "Iran was waiting."

Then came the specific charge. "They leaked that we were leaving at 12:07 from Missouri, and it was in the New York Times, CNN," Trump said. He told the crowd he called off the mission once the timing was public and that the raid went ahead two days later, which he called "the only time that they didn't expect us."

A B-2 Spirit bomber of the Whiteman Air Force Base fleet in Missouri on takeoff. (U.S. Air Force photo via Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

What is confirmed and what is not

Only Trump's own words are on the record here. TIME reported that the remarks appeared to refer to Operation Midnight Hammer, the June 2025 strike on Iranian nuclear sites, and noted that the outlet could not verify the leak claim or tie the described delay to that operation. We could not find the Times or CNN reporting he described either, so treat the 12:07 detail as his claim, not an established fact. No White House or Pentagon follow-up on the rally remarks has surfaced.

What can be checked is the pattern. A federal leak crackdown has been running all year, and the target is a press corps that treats operational details as a scoop.

The Pentagon was already hunting leakers

In August, about 50 military and civilian personnel on the Joint Staff were polygraphed over leaks about U.S. munitions stockpiles, Al Jazeera reported, citing the New York Times. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the department "takes all leaks of classified national security information extremely seriously," and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, "Leaked information risks lives." Trump called the stockpile reporting "treasonous statements" in early September and vowed leakers would be "hunted down."

The administration disputes that stockpiles are low. The press, as usual, ran the story first and let the government argue about it afterward.

Official record

Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 793, "Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information," as published by the U.S. Government Publishing Office.

"Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both." — 18 U.S.C. 793 (penalty clause)

Read or download the 2-page statute (PDF) from GovInfo

The law already covers a bomber timetable

Section 793(d) and (e) reach anyone with authorized or unauthorized access to a "plan" or "information relating to the national defense" who "willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted" it to "any person not entitled to receive it." The penalty is up to ten years. Nobody needs a firing squad to treat a departure time as protected. The statute is already on the books, and the real question is whether the Justice Department will use it.

A B-2 Spirit in its hangar with ground crew, photographed during preparations for a mission. (U.S. Air Force photo via Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

Why it matters now

The timing is not academic. Trump has said the U.S. will not resume strikes on Iran before the Nov. 3 midterms, CBS News live coverage noted, while CNN has reported that the military has drawn up options that include the GBU-43/B "mother of all bombs" if combat resumes, per Just Security's Oct. 15 roundup. CBS reported that a White House spokesperson said, "We do not comment on sensitive military plans that may or may not exist."

Strip away the rally theatrics and the argument for conservatives is simple. Crews flying out of Missouri deserve operational security, and the people who hand reporters their wheels-up time are betting American pilots against an enemy that was, in Trump's words, waiting. Enforce the statute that exists, prosecute the leakers who break it, and leave the firing-squad talk at the rally.

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