From the Liveblog of
Monday, April 6, 2026
Trump threatens to jail reporter over leaked mention of 2nd downed airman
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleJacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
US President Donald Trump says a leak to the media about the existence of a second shot-down airman, shortly after American troops rescued the first one, threatened to upend the entire operation. And he threatens to jail the reporter ostensibly involved.
It is not clear which media outlet or reporter Trump is referring to. Several media outlets appeared to report on the rescue of the F-15E pilot within a short period of time Friday, including The New York Times, CBS News and Axios.
“We didn’t talk about the first [rescue] for an hour, and then somebody leaked something, which we’ll hopefully find that leaker,” Trump says during a White House press conference on the weekend rescue mission.
The “leaker basically said that we have one and there’s somebody missing,” which tipped off to the Iranians that an additional airman was in the wind, Trump says.
“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,'” he continues.
Trump says the leak made it much more difficult for the US pilots and ground troops searching for the airman, as Iran put out a “major notice,” offering locals a reward if they found him.
A previous version of this post erroneously said that Israeli outlets were first to report on the rescue.
The Times of Israel Community.