Donald Trump was ‘locked out’ of a highly important Situation Room meeting over fears that his temperament could ruin a complicated mission to save an American soldier from Iran, it has been reported.
Claims published this week have lifted the lid on the operation to extract a Weapon Systems Officer (WSO) from Iran‘s remote Zagros Mountains after their F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on April 3.
The pilot of the F-15E was recovered just a matter of hours after he was forced to eject from his fighter jet, but his missing WSO was not so lucky.
With Iranian forces closing in on their location, President Trump is claimed to have flown into a paranoid rage.
Reports in the Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous senior administration officials with knowledge of the search-and-rescue mission, claimed that Trump ‘screamed at aides for hours’ after learning that the two airmen faced capture by the Iranians – who are continuously battling against the US in the ongoing war.
The CIA and US military worked together to rescue the two occupants of the downed F-15E Strike Eagle (viation-images.com/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)viation-images.com/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
This was, reportedly, due to a pivotal historical event that happened in his lifetime, the 1979 Iran Hostage crisis.
This blunder saw an unpopular president’s poll numbers turn nuclear, leading to Ronald Reagan sweeping the board with a 44-state wipeout in 1980.
“If you look at what happened with Jimmy Carter…with the helicopters and the hostages, it cost them the election,” Trump is reported as saying, adding: “What a mess.”
The Commander-in-Chief is said to have immediately ordered a ground invasion of Iran to recover the two downed airmen, fearing how the war could shift if the remnants of Tehran’s government paraded two captured US soldiers in front of its war weary citizenry.
Ironically, this would have led the first deployment of US forces on Iranian soil since the Iranian revolution and ensuing capture of American embassy staff. But with the rescue of two Air Force personnel hanging in the balance, the WSJ claims that the adults in the room stepped in.
The 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis effectively sank President Carter’s re-election bid and saw his approval rating fall to a catastrophic 28 percent (IRNA-FILES/AFP via Getty Images)
This meant senior administration officials like Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Vice President JD Vance stepping into the Situation Room over the ensuing critical 24-hour period of the rescue mission on April 4.
Meanwhile, the elected President of the United States had been relegated to receiving updates about the mission ‘at meaningful moments’.
One unnamed official explained to the publication: “Aides kept the president out of the room as they got minute-by-minute updates because they believed his impatience wouldn’t be helpful.”
But even though Trump was ‘locked out’ of the situation room out of fear that he could jeopardize the operation, his worry about the consequences of Iran getting its hands on American soldiers had kept him up late into the night.
The WSJ reports that Trump ended up being ‘locked out’ of the Situation Room (Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
When news came through that the CIA had located the missing WSO at around 2am, which was apparently assisted using an undisclosed advanced piece of agency technology, the president finally went to bed.
But his fury at the Iranian regime was unabated by the WSO’s unbelievable rescue from a remote mountainside, in a vast operation that used more than 150 aircraft, with Trump weighing in on the conflict the next day (April 5).
In probably the most expletive public message by an American leader, following the stress of the rescue operation, Trump told Iran’s leaders on Truth Social: “Open the F***in’ Strait, you crazy b*stards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”
Featured Image Credit: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
