Washington - US President Donald Trump on Monday took to
Twitter to defend the targeted killing of top Iranian general Qassem
Soleimani after critics questioned the "imminent" nature of the
threat Trump said justified the move.
"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 president wrote.
"The answer to both is a strong YES., but it doesn't really matter
because of his horrible past!"
Trump has justified the assassination by saying Soleimani was
planning "imminent and sinister attacks" on US personnel, but has
drawn ire for failing to produce evidence of such attacks.
The administration has also been criticized over conflicting
statements on the rationale behind the killing. Defence Secretary
Mark Esper on Sunday said he never saw evidence that Iran was
planning an attack on four US embassies, as Trump had claimed two
days earlier.
In a separate Monday tweet, Trump railed against "the Radical Left,
Do Nothing Democrats" for scorning his policies.
"The Democrats and the Fake News are trying to make terrorist
Soleimani into a wonderful guy, only because I did what should have
been done for 20 years," he wrote.
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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 13, 2020
The United States and Iran appeared on the brink of war after Trump
ordered the killing of Soleimani earlier this month and Iran
retaliated by firing ballistic missiles at US forces in Iraq.
Trump has since ordered additional sanctions on Iran, in what has
been taken as a de-escalation of tensions.