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MAGA influencers have taken to fearmongering over threats of Iranian “sleeper cells” in the wake of President Donald Trump’s unilateral entry into Israel’s war with Iran. The president continues to face backlash over his decision to bomb Iran over unsubstantiated claims that the country’s nuclear program posed an imminent threat to the United States.
Some of the president’s allies are looking to stoke fears that Iran’s imminent threat to the U.S. might also take the form of a domestic terror attack using “sleeper cells” in the United States — a theory that apparently originates from Iranian threats but for which there’s no other public evidence.
Over the weekend, NBC News reported, citing two unnamed U.S. officials, that Iran sent Trump a warning, through an intermediary at the G7 summit, that it could respond to American bombings by activating so-called sleeper cells, or secret agents, within the United States. On Sunday, Trump’s deportation adviser Tom Homan even lobbed the unsubstantiated insinuation that any of the “thousands” of Iranian immigrants who came to the U.S. during the Biden administration could be part of a secret terror cell.
Homan’s claim echoed a memo to Customs and Border Protection from Commissioner Rodney Scott that alleged “thousands” of Iranians had entered the U.S. “illegally” and that “the threat of sleeper cells or sympathizers acting on their own, or at the behest of Iran has never been higher.” But even Scott acknowledged “we have not received any specific credible threats to share with you all currently.” (Neither MSNBC or NBC News have reviewed the memo, first reported by the Hill.)
Likewise, during a Monday morning interview on Fox News, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration hadn’t identified any specific threats.
Nonetheless, the sleeper cell claims out of the Trump administration have triggered a particularly paranoid response from the conservative movement, with some calling for their followers to take up arms or for officials to ramp up scrutiny of Iranian sympathizers.
Journalist Laura Jedeed highlighted social media posts from right-wing influencers Charlie Kirk and Rogan O’Handley that call on their followers to arm themselves against ... what exactly is left to the imagination. Shadowy secret agents in trench coats?
“Stay armed. Stay vigilant. We have no idea how many sleeper cells are inside the United States,” Kirk tweeted, adding, “It’s an unforgivable weakness Biden left this country with. Stay alert. Pray.” Aside from being false and conspiratorial, that’s certainly an ironic claim, considering all the steps the Trump’s administration has taken that undercut the United States’ ability to prevent terrorist attacks.
O’Handley told his followers to stay armed in public and “defend the homeland,” as though a shoot-out with foreign spies might suddenly break out in their suburb. Jedeed also highlighted a comment from Breitbart’s Washington Bureau chief, Matt Boyle, who during a recent appearance on Steve Bannon’s podcast suggested the Trump administration was attempting to deter “possible sleeper cells that are Iranian-aligned folks, Hezbollah-aligned folks” in the U.S.
Without more evidence to support their claims, all of this sleeper cell talk coming out of the MAGA movement sounds like a ploy to shift their audience’s attention away from Trump's warmongering with Iran — which is deeply unpopular — to his anti-immigrant agenda, an issue the president and his followers seem far more comfortable with.