Iran to undercut Trump campaign, Russia doing opposite, U.S. officials indicate

Iran has started an influence campaign designed to undercut the candidacy of former President Donald Trump, U.S. officials indicated Monday, in an apparent reprisal of a 2020 effort that U.S. intelligence agencies found with high confidence had been authorized by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

The update came from officials with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), FBI and Department of Homeland Security who held a joint election security briefing 99 days before Election Day. The briefing was the second in a series the agencies expect to give before that day, and the officials spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive assessments.

“Since our last update, the [intelligence community] has observed Tehran working to influence the presidential election, probably because Iranian leaders want to avoid an outcome they perceive would increase tensions with the United States,” a senior ODNI official said, adding, “Iran’s preference is essentially a reflection of its desire to not worsen tensions with the United States, and Iran is opposing the candidate that Iran’s leaders perceive would increase those tensions.”

The officials did not explicitly name the Trump campaign and referred instead to the key findings of the 2020 assessment. They also stressed that most of Iran’s online activities, which they said rely on a “vast web” of internet personas, have been focused on stoking chaos and societal divisions, including over the war in Gaza.

The officials who briefed reporters Monday declined to offer additional details on the extent to which Iran is backing Gaza-related protests in the U.S., an effort revealed earlier this month in a statement from Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.

In the statement, issued on July 9, Haines said the intelligence community had “observed actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online seeking to encourage protests and even providing financial support to protesters.”

“We can’t comment on the scale of the activities,” the ODNI official said Monday. “We can say there is great concern given their efforts to engage U.S. persons directly in the activity or through another entity as a cutout.”