Trump Reveals Drone Attack On Iranian General To Mar-A-Lago Guests & Israelis Before Congress

According to anonymous guests staying at the resort for several days leading up to the airstrike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, President Donald Trump started hinting to them to expect something “big” very “soon” in Iraq. 

Days before the strike, one source told the Daily Beast, “[Trump] kept saying, ‘You’ll see.’” Barak Ravid, an Israeli journalist who has sources in the Israeli government told the Los Angeles Times, “Our assessment is that the United States informed Israel about this operation in Iraq, apparently a few days ago.” 

Despite tradition, Trump did not inform top Democrats such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ahead of the strike. Instead, the White House formally sent out a notification, as required by the War Powers Act, of the strike to Congress, after the airstrike. According to a Democratic aide, the notice is classified. According to Pelosi, the notice “raises more questions than it answers.”

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In a briefing the following morning after the strike, Senate staff received little information following the strike. A Senate aide in the room of the briefing said, “This administration has absolutely not earned the benefit of the doubt when it makes these kinds of claims. When you’re taking action that could lead to the third American war in the Middle East in 20 years, you need to do better than these kinds of assertions.”

In the briefing, attendees were told that the administration plans to de-escalate tensions with Iran, but gave no clear plan of what that would look like. 

Rob Malley, a senior National Security Council official during the Obama Administration, said, “To talk about de-escalation now is absurd, in a way, because Iran will react. The de-escalation decision should have been taken before the assassination of Qasem Soleimani.”

Following the attack, Iranian officials threatened to retaliate against the United States and have since then announced that they will no longer follow key clauses of the 2015 nuclear deal that lifted restrictions on centrifuges, uranium enrichment and more.