How Donald Trump could get us into a war with Iran

He doesn't even have to be president.

At the beginning of the damnable year of 2020 — before the lockdown, before George Floyd, before Donald Trump tried to steal the election — the United States killed an Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani, in a strike at the Baghdad airport. For a few days it looked like America and Iran might go to war. But Iran launched some missiles at a U.S. base, nobody was killed — though there were injuries — and the moment for fear seemed to pass.

Only it hasn’t.

Why? Because Iran is still out for revenge. And that has made it more dangerous to be both Trump, or anybody in Trump’s circle.

The result? Trump is now asking for American military assets to protect his campaign.

The requests are extraordinary and unprecedented — no nominee in recent history has been ferried around in military planes ahead of an election. But the requests came after Trump’s campaign advisers received briefings in which the government said Iran is still actively plotting to kill him, according to the emails reviewed by The Post and the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive discussions. Trump advisers have grown concerned about drones and missiles, according to the people.

There is no evidence tying Iran to either of the recent assassination attempts, the people said, but the FBI has not ruled out the possibility of a connection. U.S. spies have determined that Iran’s leaders are seeking to take revenge on U.S. officials including Trump whom they hold responsible for a strike that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani in 2020, but Iran’s ability to strike within the United States is limited, according to people briefed on the intelligence.

It’s not just Trump. And it’s not just paranoia.

POLITICO spoke with 24 people with direct knowledge of the Soleimani strike or the ensuing assassination threat, including current and former U.S. lawmakers, Secret Service agents, congressional aides and senior U.S. officials. Some were granted anonymity due to ongoing threats against them or the sensitivity of their work.

They collectively painted a picture of a pervasive assassination threat that is much more concrete than the graphic videos, brash proclamations and menacing social media posts that have found their way into the public eye. They detailed hacking and digital surveillance efforts against the former officials and their family members, a drumbeat of personal FBI warnings about new threats from Iran, increasingly tense discussions about how to protect individuals amid ongoing plots, and efforts by suspected Iranian operatives to trail a U.S. official during a trip abroad.

The government is having a hard time protecting all the former Trump officials now potentially threatened by Iran — including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

A couple of thoughts:

* It’s easy to see how this escalates. If Iran — God forbid — managed to assassinate Trump, you have to assume the United States would respond with immediate, direct and terrible military action. I don’t think American officials would believe they had any other choice. You have to assume Iran might respond from there. We would be at war. Nearly five years after Soleimani died, the consequences are still shaking out.

* The Soleimani assassination, incidentally, is one reason the “he kept us out of war” narrative about Trump is way, way overblown. Soleimani might have been a bad guy, but Trump’s justification of the attack as heading off an imminent strike on Americans was flimsy from the start. It could have sparked a war then.

It didn’t. But it still could.