U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during a press conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 6, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
President Donald Trump said that his administration is on the hunt for "a leaker," he said, who revealed that one person was rescued and another was still missing from a downed aircraft in Iran.
"And as you probably know, we didn't talk about the first one for an hour and then somebody leaked something, which we'll hopefully find that leaker. We're looking very hard to find that leaker and talked about, 'There's somebody missing.' They basically said that we have one and there's somebody missing," said Trump.
"A leaker leaked!" Trump exclaimed, noting that they revealed "national security" information.
According to Trump, his administration will put the journalists in jail if they don't turn over their source.
'Well, they [Iran] didn't know there was somebody missing until this leaker gave the information. So whoever it is, 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," announced Trump. "And we know who and you know who we're talking about because some things you can't do because when they did that, all of a sudden the entire country of Iran knew that there was a pilot that was somewhere on their land that was fighting for his life."
"The person will go to jail if he doesn't say," added Trump.
Video footage from people on the ground in Iran was uploaded to social media showing the plane wreckage.
"Bit hard to follow Trump recounting of the rescue mission," foreign policy reporter Laura Rozen wrote on X. "Trump repeatedly talking about sand and contingencies."
"It's a F-15E, it is a two-person fighter jet. It doesn't take a leaker to realize there were two people to find," wrote "Task and Purpose" editor Nicholas Slayton on BlueSky.
Others wondered if Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth could be the leaker. The secretary was found to be sending classified information via Signal to his lawyer, wife, a group of Trump officials and a reporter who was also quietly on the chat.
Another suggested that Trump could have been the leaker because he "can't keep his mouth shut."