❓WHAT HAPPENED: President Donald J. Trump on Monday vowed that his administration would identify the “leaker” who revealed that the U.S. military was unable to immediately rescue the second U.S. airman shot down over Iran last week.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: President Trump, the U.S. military, the corporate media, and a suspected leaker.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The comments were made during a White House press conference on Monday, April 6, 2026.
💬KEY QUOTE: “We have to find that leaker because that is a sick person; probably didn’t realize the extent of how bad it was… They put this mission at great risk.” — President Trump
🎯IMPACT: While the F-15E’s pilot was swiftly rescued in a daring daytime extraction, the downed jet’s Weapons Systems Officer (WSO) could not be located and rescued immediately.
President Donald J. Trump on Monday vowed that his administration would identify the “leaker” who revealed that the U.S. military was unable to immediately rescue the second pilot shot down over Iran last week. “We’re looking very hard to find that leaker,” the President said during a White House briefing discussing the successful rescue operation to extract the two U.S. airmen who were forced to eject from their F-15E deep inside Iran.
“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,” Trump revealed, adding, “We think we’ll be able to find it out, 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.’”
Last Friday, it was revealed that a F-15E fighter jet was shot down over Iran, with both the pilot and the Weapons Systems Officer (WSO) ejecting from the aircraft deep inside Iranian territory. Following the downing of the jet, the Iranian regime announced a large bounty for the capture of the two U.S. airmen and dispatched a contingent of its military forces to locate them. While the F-15E’s pilot was swiftly rescued in a daring daytime extraction, the downed jet’s WSO—as revealed in a media leak—could not be located and rescued immediately.
After an extensive search, the second U.S. airman was located early Sunday morning and successfully extracted through an operation led by Navy SEAL Team 6 commandos and hundreds of special operations troops and other military personnel. The mission faced a significant challenge when two MC-130 aircraft suffered mechanical failures, risking the commandos being stranded. Commanders made the high-risk decision to send additional aircraft into Iran to extract the team in waves.
“We have to find that leaker because that is a sick person; probably didn’t realize the extent of how bad it was… They put this mission at great risk,” Trump reiterated.
Join Pulse+ to comment below, and receive exclusive e-mail analyses.