When two American airmen went missing after their F-15E was shot down over Iran, the people managing the crisis made a decision. They kept the commander-in-chief out of the room and briefed him by phone at key intervals instead.
According to the Wall Street Journal, they did this because they believed his presence would not be helpful. That is a diplomatic way of describing what the Journal also reported as hours of screaming.
When Trump was informed that an American jet had been shot down with two airmen missing, he “screamed at aides for hours” and repeatedly said: “The Europeans aren’t helping.” He demanded immediate military action to retrieve the airmen. At the same time, aides explained that U.S. forces had not operated on the ground in Iran since 1979 and needed time to assess the terrain.
He also resisted a proposal to seize Kharg Island, which handles most of Iran’s oil exports, despite being told the mission could succeed. “They’ll be sitting ducks,” he said, citing concerns about potential casualties.
Stay up-to-date with the latest news!
Subscribe and start recieving our daily emails.
The obsession running underneath all of it was Jimmy Carter.
Trump had been privately fixating on the 1979 Iran hostage crisis for weeks before the airmen went missing. “If you look at what happened with Jimmy Carter… with the helicopters and the hostages, it cost them the election,” he said in March, according to the Journal. “What a mess.” He was determined not to be Carter. The irony of having launched the war that created the hostage risk in the first place was not addressed.
Aides kept Trump out of the Situation Room during minute-by-minute updates, with Vice President Vance dialing in from Camp David and chief of staff Susie Wiles from her Florida home, briefing Trump by phone at key moments because they believed “his impatience would not be helpful.”
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later told the Journal that Trump “remained a steady leader our country needs.” The steady leader was being briefed by telephone from another room because his behavior in the room itself was counterproductive.
Both airmen were eventually rescued. Hours after learning the second airman had been saved, Trump posted his profanity-laden Easter morning message demanding Iran open the Strait of Hormuz, including the phrase “Praise be to Allah.” He later told an adviser the post was entirely improvised. He wanted to seem “as unstable and insulting as possible,” believing it was language the Iranians would understand.
He then reportedly asked advisers: “How’s it playing?” The man who was screaming about Jimmy Carter for two days was now workshopping his public image on Easter morning.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
