Donald Trump has alleged that some of his campaign’s internal communications have been hacked, attributing the breach to the Iranian government due to previous conflicts between himself and Iran.
Following a report by Politico that began receiving emails in July from an anonymous source offering genuine documents from inside Trump’s campaign—including a report on running mate JD Vance’s “potential vulnerabilities”—the Republican campaign released a statement.
“These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, with the aim of interfering with the 2024 election and creating chaos in our democratic process,” said Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung.
Cheung added, “The Iranians know that President Trump will stop their reign of terror just as he did in his first term in the White House.”
Late Saturday night, Trump posted on his Truth Social app that Microsoft had informed the campaign of an Iranian hack on one of its websites. He blamed Iran, noting they could only access publicly available information and did not provide further details on the hack.
The Trump campaign also referenced a Friday report from Microsoft researchers stating that Iranian government-linked hackers attempted to breach the account of a “high-ranking official” in a U.S. presidential campaign in June. The hackers reportedly took over an account belonging to a former political advisor and used it to target the official.
In response, Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations in New York stated via email that “the Iranian government neither possesses nor harbors any intent or motive to interfere in the United States presidential election,” dismissing the Trump campaign’s allegations.
On Friday, Iran’s U.N. mission told Reuters that its cyber capabilities were “defensive and proportionate to the threats it faces,” denying any plans to conduct cyberattacks.
Trump had a strained relationship with Iran during his presidency, notably ordering the killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020 and withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal. He survived an assassination attempt in July, with no current links to Iran, though there were reports of U.S. intelligence about an Iranian plot against him, which Iran has denied.
