Donald Trump Was Afraid of Being a Target for Iran's Assassination
WASHINGTON - Former US president Donald Trump is said to have experienced anxiety because he thought he would be the target of Iran's assassination. He feared that Tehran would retaliate for killing former commander-in-chief of Quds Major General Qassem Soleimani.
This was revealed by New York Times journalist Peter Baker and The New Yorker journalist Susan Glasser in a book called "The Divider" they worked on together. The book takes a close look at the Trump administration's policies toward Iran.
The Guardian, on Wednesday (14/9/2022), published several quotes from The Divider, one of which was related to the assassination of Major General Qassem Soleimani. In public, Trump has shown confidence in his decision to order Soleimani's assassination. He even scoffed somewhat at the military figure Iran was so proud of. “He (Soleimani) was a bloodthirsty terrorist, and he is no longer a terrorist. He's dead," Trump said when announcing the successful mission of eliminating Soleimani in January 2020.
But when he is in a private room or event, Trump cannot hide his fear of Iranian retaliation. In the book The Divider, Peter Baker and Susan Glasser reveal, at the end of 2020, Trump had left a cocktail party in Florida. At that time, Trump told his friends that he was afraid of being targeted by Iran.
“At a cocktail party, Trump told some of his friends in Florida that he was afraid Iran would try to kill him, so he should return to Washington where he would be safer,” Baker and Glasser wrote in their book.
In January, Iran marked the second anniversary of the death of Qassem Soleimani. Soleimani was killed at Baghdad International Airport, Iraq, on January 3, 2020. He was killed while in a convoy of Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an Iraqi paramilitary force with close ties to Iran. Their motorcade was targeted by US drones. Donald Trump is the figure who directly ordered the attack.
Iran strongly condemns Soleimani's killing and vows to retaliate against Washington's actions. Shortly after the assassination, Iran launched air strikes on US military bases in Iraq. The action had raised global concerns about the potential for war to break out.
Soleimani is an Iranian military figure who has great influence in the Middle East region. He is entrusted with commanding the Quds Force, a division or wing of Iran's Revolutionary Guards responsible for extraterritorial operations, including counter-intelligence in the region. Soleimani also had close ties to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.