Behind Trump’s decision to strike
Briefed at resort, he chose most dramatic of options
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — At the midway point of his annual Christmas vacation, President Donald Trump huddled at his Florida club with his top national security advisers. Days earlier, a rocket attack by an Iranian funded group struck a U.S.-Iraqi base, killing an American contractor and wounding several others.
Trump’s advisers presented him with an array of options for responding, including the most dramatic possible response: taking out Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds force and the man responsible for hundreds of American deaths.
Trump wanted to target Soleimani. It was a decision his predecessors had avoided and one that risked inflaming tensions with Tehran. Some advisers voiced concern about the legal justification for a strike without evidence of an imminent attack in the works against Americans. So other options were discussed in the intervening days with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and national security adviser Robert O’Brien.
But Trump remained focused on Soleimani, a preference that surprised aides because the president had long been reluctant to deepen U.S. military engagement around the world.
By Thursday, officials believed they had intelligence indicating Soleimani was plotting against Americans, though it’s unclear when that intelligence became known to U.S. officials.
Trump slipped out of a meeting with political advisers Thursday to give the final go-ahead. His decision to authorize the drone strike that eventually killed Soleimani has escalated tensions between the U.S. and Iran.
That was on display Saturday when Trump issued a stark warning to Iran, threatening to hit dozens of targets in the Islamic Republic “very fast and very hard” if it retaliated for the killing of Soleimani.
The tweets came as the White House sent to Congress a formal notification under the War Powers Act of the drone strike on Soleimani, a senior administration official said. U.S. law requires notification within 48 hours of the introduction of American forces into an armed conflict or a situation that could lead to war.
The notification was classified and it was not known if a public version would be released.
Thursday wasn’t the first time Trump’s lush Mar-aLago resort had been the backdrop for a momentous national security decision.
In February 2017, Trump huddled with Japan’s Shinzo Abe, in full view of club members eating dinner, to weigh a response to a North Korean missile test. Two months later, Trump authorized a U.S. missile strike on Syria, then shared chocolate cake with China’s President Xi Jinping, who was visiting Mar-a-Lago for meetings.
Trump spent much of this vacation angry about the attack on the contractor. He stayed largely out of sight in Florida, emerging only for rounds of golf at his other nearby club and mingling with guests at a New Year’s Eve party.
Asked then by a reporter if he foresaw a chance of war with Iran, Trump said he wanted “to have peace.”
“And Iran should want peace more than anybody,” he said. “So I don’t see that happening.”
He betrayed no indication of the decision he was weighing. More than a halfdozen administration officials, congressional staffers and advisers described Trump’s decision-making.
Earlier that day, Trump was meeting with his political advisers about his reelection campaign when he was summoned to give the final go-ahead. Officials believed they had a legal justification and would cite intelligence suggesting that Soleimani was traveling in the Middle East to put final touches on plans for attacks that would have hit U.S. diplomats, soldiers and American facilities in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria.
U.S. officials have not been more specific about
the intelligence.
Administration officials acknowledged that Soleimani’s killing carried a risk of retaliation. The Pentagon is sending nearly 3,000 more Army troops to the Mideast and some troops are on standby to travel to Beirut if more security is needed at the embassy there.
As Trump addressed the nation Friday, he declared Soleimani’s “reign of terror was over.”