Trump privately detailed the Soleimani airstrike to donors at Mar-a-Lago fundraiser
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
President Trump delivered a dramatic account of the airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani, joked that he doesn’t care if construction projects kill all the rattlesnakes and noted his indifference to the budget during a private dinner with deep-pocketed donors Friday night at Mar-a-Lago, according to audio files obtained by The Washington Post.
Trump, his tone subdued and conversational, explained his motivation for attacking Soleimani and recounted listening to an anonymous military official countdown to the Jan. 3 strike.
The president said nothing about an “imminent attack” on U.S. interests or threats to four U.S. embassies as he previously has to justify the unilateral military strike that escalated tensions in the region and opened debate on presidential war powers.
Instead, he spoke broadly about Soleimani as “the father of the road side bomb” responsible for “every young, beautiful man or woman who see walking around with no legs, no arms.” Trump said he heard about two weeks ago that the United States had Soleimani under surveillance and he was “talking about bad stuff.”
“He was saying bad things about our country, like we’re going to attack, we’re going to kill your people. I said, ‘listen, how much of this s--- do we have to listen to, right?’” Trump said to applause from the donor crowd.
Trump went on to describe those final minutes before the strike, watching and listening from the Situation Room.
“ ‘Sir, they have two minutes and 11 seconds.’ No emotion. ‘two minutes and 11 seconds to live, sir. They’re in the car, they’re in an armored vehicle. Sir, they have approximately one minute to live, sir. 30 seconds. 10, 9, 8 ...’ Then all of a sudden, boom.”
The official on the line told the president Soleimani and the Iraqi military leader he was meeting with were “gone” and then hung up, according to Trump.
“I said, ‘Where is this guy?’ ” Trump said. “That was the last I heard from him.”
In a separate audio clip, Trump is heard boasting about increasing the defense budget by $2.5 trillion. To those who criticized his spending and the growing national debt, Trump said, “Who the hell cares about the budget? We’re going to have a country.”
For most of Barack Obama’s time in office, Republicans seemed to care very much about the budget, making fears around the national debt and deficit their top talking point. They’ve backed off those concerns under Trump.
The audio files, obtained by The Post, came in four short segments, and each cuts off midsentence or midpoint.
In the 40-second clip about the military budget, Trump said, “It’s been an incredible period of time and that’s despite the witch hunt. . .” before the audio cuts out.
In another short file, Trump laments the complicated process to build infrastructure, mocking environmental concerns, specifically mentioning turtle and rattlesnake nesting.
“As far as I’m concerned, you can kill those rattlesnakes. I’ll give you a little secret. As many as we kill, they’ll be here long after us. The rattlesnake. You can kill every son of a b----in’ rattlesnake,” he said.
Then Trump segues to, “I’m not a big person who believes in sharks too much…,” before the audio file ends.
Trump is famously terrified of sharks. He has tweeted about his disdain for them and Stormy Daniels, who allegedly had an affair with Trump, said he was obsessed with sharks and once told her, “I hope all the sharks die.”
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Here is our fearless leader making us proud.
The man is a total idiot.
He's shameless. He is the worst of america.
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He's a POS, the worst president this country has ever had
He's going to bankrupt this country...then again he's not new to bankruptcy.
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5-7 years for me. I might retire Jan 20,2025 if a democrat replaces Trump as our President then.
Too bad none of you on the other side cared a bit about the debt and decicits when your unholy messiah , lord Barry’s regime tried to rule over us
Under President Obama the debt and deficits dropped. And all of that after paying the Wall Street folks for the GOP's and GW Bush's blunders.
Um.. No.
The debt under Obama rose about as much as it did under all the preceding Presidents combined.
We have just hit 1 trillion in debt. Guess who did that? Here is a hint...it wasn't Obama.
And your unholy orange god is ringing up the debt and you don't seem to care.
Exactly. Obama was actually selling us out to China 🇨🇳 while falsely accusing Trump of colluding with Russia 🇷🇺
[Deleted] You couldn't stop bitching that Obama hadn't reduced deficits enough or fast enough. Then fat fuck comes into office and your tune changed 100%. This is why your opinions are meaningless.
Deficits did drop though.
What damage was that exactly? Like specifically, how did he damage the military?
He sold us out to China how? I want specific details that I know you don't have.
The difference being that Obama took over an economy that was in a nose dive, so he at least had an excuse to spend money to kick start the economy. What is Trump's excuse? He took over a growing economy. He also said he would pay off the debt in 4-6 years. The deficit is now over 1 trillion a year. If trump was half the business man he says he is, he should be shrinking the debt, not adding to it. Part of the problem is those tax cuts which largely went to the super rich. That reduced the feds income. Couple that with trump's increased spending and you have a massive deficit. Now what are McConnell and the GOP planning to rape, (again), SS and Medicare. Which McConnell calls, "entitlements". So now, something that people have paid into ALL of their lives, will be gone, just to pay for those tax cuts for the rich. This isn't just trump, or Obama, or Bush...etc... This goes all the way back to Reagan. SS doesn't pay much, and honestly, I can easily live without it, but there are a LOT of people that DO need it.
In the end, the tax cuts have turned our deficit and debt upside down, both are even more out of control than they were under Obama. But again, at least he had an excuse. Trump? No excuse.
Huh? What damage would that be?
Looks to me like Obama spent plenty on the military.
Also, our military is so big, you have to combine the next 12 countries to equal what we have. We could really stand to just maintain our military for the next decade or two.
Unfortunately the truth is a two edged sword.
Facts mean nothing to partisans...
Very true.
Doesn't matter who Trump told at Mar a Lago. Putin already knew and that was all that mattered.
Trump couldn't tell congress because he couldn't trust them to not leak the info....
But apparently the buffet bar at Mar-a-Lago is totally secure.
But it was obviously better than telling Congress - there WERE NO LEAKS.
BS
From reading the article, his braggadocio in Mar a Largo was on January 3rd, Soleimani was killed on January 2.
Even given any possible differences in time zones, it was after the fact and there was no possibility of leaks,
was there?
They have no good excuses for his stupidity. It's funny watching them twist themselves inside out trying to use his own excuses into their comments.
I told my big donors but couldn't tell Congress because they don't support my reelection campaign....I mean they'll leak it..
I don't know how they can look themselves in the mirror each day and not feel ashamed.