Trump says there could be over 1,700 Iranian 'sleeper cells' in US

WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump on Friday said that Iran may have a sprawling network of over 1,700 "sleeper cells" in the US.

"We're watching them very, very carefully. We have them under watch. Now, when you say that, you say 1,700, could be a lot more than that came in," Trump said during an interview with Fox News Radio. "But nobody knows, because you had so many gotaways under (former President Joe) Biden where nobody has any idea where they came from, and nobody was asking where they came from.

The comments come after Trump spent much of the first 15 months of his second term carrying out a nationwide immigration crackdown that has seen thousands of people deported back to their home countries alongside a massive deployment of federal officers and troops in US cities worldwide.

Asked if he is worried about the prospects of Iran launching a drone attack on the US homeland, Trump said: " I don't worry about it, because if you did, you wouldn't be able to function."

"So you can't worry. You have to do something. And we watch everything at a level that, it's never been watched, our country has never been watched over like this, ever before," he added.

The White House said Thursday there is no credible threat from Iran to the US homeland, rejecting a media report that suggested Tehran could retaliate for American strikes by targeting the West Coast with drones.

Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt made the remarks in a post on US social media company X while criticizing an ABC News report that said the FBI warned police departments in the state of California about a potential Iranian drone threat.

“To be clear: No such threat from Iran to our homeland exists, and it never did,” Leavitt said.