The check didn’t arrive until a few months later, after the Washington Post ran a story that made the offer public for the first time. The family received the personal check a few days later, which was dated the same day as when the story was released. The White House explained that “the check has been in the pipeline since the president’s initial call with the father,” and that there were just several processes that needed to first be navigated.
Nevertheless, the family received their promised check.
Amid escalating tensions between the United States and Iran following the drone strike of a senior official, Trump threatened to destroy a variety of targets including “some at a very high level & important to Iran & Iranian culture.” The deliberate destruction of cultural sites constitutes a war crime. The Pentagon immediately contradicted Trump by ruling out any such targets.
….targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!
While many NATO members house US nuclear weapons, according to Pentagon spokesman Air Force Lt. Col. Uriah Orland “it is U.S. policy to neither confirm nor deny the presence or absence of nuclear weapons at any general or specific location.” During a meeting with the Italian President, Trump confirmed the presence of US nuclear weapons at a specific Turkish air force base.
On January 3, 2020 Qassem Soleimani, leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force and a senior political figure in the Iranian government, was killed by a drone strike, along with several others in his motorcade. The Quds Force was designated a state sponsor of terrorism in 2007, as it supported militant proxy groups like Hezbollah. Iran claimed that Soleimani was in Iraq at time to meet with officials to deescalating regional tensions. However, officials believed that he was working to target US military forces in the region to instigate reprisals and galvanize public support for the government, which had been facing domestic protests.
Trump received criticism of the unilateral action for escalating tensions by assassinating a political figure. While Israel and Saudi Arabia were briefed ahead of the move, and Trump reportedly made mention to patrons at his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago, no briefing was given to Congress. He had similarly briefed Russia on another airstrike before Congress. Instead, he asserted that his tweets constitute official notice. Tensions were further inflamed by his threat to target and destroy Iranian cultural sites, a war-crime, and a claim which the Pentagon ruled out.
While the White House had originally claimed that Soleimani posed an imminent threat, requiring the strike, little information was offered to Congress or the American people. His intelligence briefing was derided even by Republicans. Instead, Trump cited his “horrible past” as sufficient cause.
The base had been so hastily abandoned that photographs show it was still powered and stocked with food. Russian journalists took footage of the abandoned base and claimed in media broadcasts, “Manbij is ours!” Turkey immediately began an offense against Kurdish militias in the region, who had lost over 10,000 soldiers fighting alongside the US against ISIS. Trump later tweeted about his own “great and unmatched wisdom” regarding the matter.
Though the Kurds had long been US allies in the region, Trump dismissed concerns about them by saying they are “no angels.” He also suggested that the Kurds were releasing ISIS prisoners, though other US officials have said that this was being done by Turkish-backed forces. Concerns about the released ISIS prisoners were dismissed as being a problem for Europe instead of the United States. Trump claimed that allies like the United Kingdom’s were “thrilled” with his decision, though the UK government has denied this, and opposed any Turkish incursion. Other reports with sources in Trump’s administration assert that he believed Turkey to be bluffing, and that it wouldn’t actually attack Syria.
Trump also claimed that the soldiers that had been stationed in Syria would be coming home, when in fact they were just to be redeployed to Iraq.
Trump said, “this is the biggest there is. This is the worst ever. Osama bin Laden was big, but Osama bin Laden became big with the World Trade Center. This is a man who built a whole, as he would like to call it, a country.” He went on to repeat a past claim that he had warned of bin Laden a year before his attack on the World Trade Center, but never received due credit.
Trump defended the unusual decision to avoid telling any Congressional leaders about the raid by claiming that Washington DC too frequently leaks important information. Trump had repeatedly leaked sensitive information, including on spy satellites, covert operatives, and the methods used in this very raid on al-Baghdadi.
Some of the remarks Trump made about the raid had been classified, while others seemed too fantastical to be true. Trump said of the raid that the ISIS leader “died like a dog,” having been “whimpering and crying and screaming all the way,” though Department of Defense officials said it was made up, as the feed of the raid had no audio.
Trump’s inclusion of a photo taken from a spy satellite in his tweet revealed the resolution and location of the US’ best surveillance satellites. Using the angle of the photo, it was even possible for amateurs to determine exactly which satellite took it.
The United States of America was not involved in the catastrophic accident during final launch preparations for the Safir SLV Launch at Semnan Launch Site One in Iran. I wish Iran best wishes and good luck in determining what happened at Site One. pic.twitter.com/z0iDj2L0Y3
Trump and his regular unsecured discussions with Russian officials led him to be considered such a massive security risk to any intelligence operations in Russia. After Trump gave classified intelligence to Russians about Israeli counter-terrorism operations, there was mounting concern in the intelligence community about a CIA operative inside the Russian government. The information was withdrawn from Russia in 2017, despite having been in place for decades passing on information to the US government.
