In a Monday morning tweet, Pres. Donald Trump chose to be sarcastic about Sen. Cory Booker cancelling his campaign for president and dismissive about concerns that his decision to kill Qassem Soleimani is a serious protocol issue that potentially violates international laws.
The latter disregards a week of fallout with Congress over not being notified of the strike and the anger of Iranian protestors who want the U.S. to leave their country. Yet, Trump is justifying his decision to take out the Iranian leader based on Soleimani being a bad actor for years.
"The Fake News Media and their Democrat Partners are working hard to determine whether or not the future attack by terrorist Soleimani was “imminent” or not, & was my team in agreement. The answer to both is a strong YES., but it doesn’t really matter because of his horrible past," wrote Trump.
NBC reports he approved of killing Qassem Soleimani 7 months ago in response to Irans shooting down of a U.S. drone. At the time the president said it was not a proportional response, but that he would retaliate if an American life was taken. That moment came in late December when a U.S. civilian was killed there.
While making his rounds with the media over the weekend, Sec. of Defense Mark Esper said by his definition of imminent, the strike was justified.