In July 2025, a claim circulated online that U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced declassified documents indicating former U.S. president Barack Obama authorized an assassination attempt on U.S. President Donald Trump just before he assumed office the first time in 2016.
One post (archived) received more than 1.7 million views on X, as of this writing, and copy-pasted versions of the text (copypasta) also spread to Facebook (archived) and other various webpages. Dozens of users in the comments appeared to believe the claim, while others questioned its veracity.
The post claimed:
- Gabbard said declassified documents (set to be released) revealed an assassination attempt that Obama authorized.
- A task force made up of senior intelligence officials and military advisers planned the crime in the last 30 days of Obama's presidency.
- The explicit goal was to prevent Trump from assuming office; one document read, "The threat Trump poses to institutional stability cannot be overstated. Removal, if necessary, is justified."
- An anonymous whistleblower within the "National Security Command Center" thwarted the plans.
- Gabbard held an emergency intelligence briefing in which she said, "Operation Silence was not just surveillance. It was an organized, multi-agency plot to eliminate the President-elect."
The rumor was entirely false. The X account that posted the claim above is not a reputable news source; a label under the account's handle indicated it is a "fan account." No credible news source reported on this information.
Further, the "National Security Command Center" does not exist as a federal agency, although the National Security Operations Center does.
We reached out to Gabbard's office, the White House and the National Security Agency (NSA) seeking comment, and will update this story if we receive a response.
If the rumor were true, all major news outlets would likely be reporting on the news, and a recording or transcript of the alleged "emergency intelligence briefing" Gabbard held would likely be publicly available. Neither is true.
A DuckDuckGo search of the keywords "Obama authorized Trump assassination" (archived) either revealed results related to the above claim from untrustworthy sources or results regarding a separate incident that apparently inspired the above claim.
(DuckDuckGo)
The related (true) story is that on July 18, 2025, Gabbard's office released a statement in which it claimed to reveal "overwhelming evidence" that Obama orchestrated a "years-long coup" against Trump that involved the Obama administration falsely accusing Trump of colluding with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.