In December 2020, Donald Trump advised pals he was afraid Iran would attempt to assassinate him in revenge for the dying of Qassem Suleimani, an Iranian common killed in a US drone strike almost a 12 months earlier than.
The startling information is reported in a brand new e-book by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, a husband-and-wife crew who write for the New York Instances and the New Yorker.
The Divider: Trump within the White Home 2017-2021 can be printed within the US subsequent week. The Guardian obtained a duplicate.
Baker and Glasser chart Trump’s Iran coverage, from reluctant talks over the nuclear deal signed underneath Barack Obama to the US withdrawal in Might 2018 and the purpose in June 2019 when Trump agreed to air strikes however referred to as them off on the final minute.
Trump mentioned then: “I considered it for a second and I mentioned, ‘You understand what, they shot down an unmanned drone … and right here we're sitting with 150 lifeless individuals that may have taken place most likely inside a half an hour after I mentioned go forward.’ And I didn’t prefer it … I didn’t suppose it was proportionate.”
It later emerged that the Fox Information host Tucker Carlson was amongst those that suggested Trump towards ordering the Iran strikes.
Six months later, Trump did authorise the strike on Suleimani.
The commander of the elite Quds (Jerusalem) drive of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, which the US designated a terrorist group in April 2019, was killed on 3 January 2020 as he left Baghdad airport.
Officers from Iran-backed Iraqi militias had been additionally killed within the strike, which used an MQ-9 Reaper drone.
The Pentagon mentioned Suleimani had been “actively growing plans to assault American diplomats and repair members in Iraq and all through the area”.
Trump bragged concerning the strike, telling a rally in Toledo, Ohio: “We stopped him and we stopped him shortly and we stopped him chilly.
“He was a foul man. He was a bloodthirsty terrorist, and he’s not a terrorist. He’s lifeless.”
However based on Glasser and Baker, lower than a 12 months later, a minimum of in personal, Trump was not fairly so bullish.
On 16 December 2020, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme chief of Iran, tweeted: “Those that ordered the homicide of Basic Suleimani in addition to those that carried this out must be punished. This revenge will definitely occur on the proper time.”
Baker and Glasser report that Trump and his advisers thought of new strikes however backed off as a result of the top of Trump’s time in energy was too close to.
The authors additionally write: “At a cocktail occasion, Trump advised a number of of his Florida pals he was afraid Iran would attempt to assassinate him, so he had to return to Washington the place he can be safer.”
Trump duly returned to Washington, the place, Baker and Glasser write, he swiftly “turned up the warmth on Mike Pence”, his vice-president who he was pressuring to dam electoral faculty outcomes confirming Trump’s election defeat by Joe Biden.
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