US President Trump was reportedly excluded from a high-stakes mission due to concerns over his temperament as the US worked to locate a missing airman following the downing of a jet
Trump was excluded from the high-stakes mission(Image: Getty Images)
Donald Trump was locked out of the Situation Room by military advisors during a high-risk Iran rescue mission, according to reports.
The US President was allegedly excluded from the meeting due to fears over his temperament.
Trump was kept out of the command room as a high-stakes extraction was carried out of a downed American airman in Iran.
The Wall Street Journal reported that senior administration officials thought his temper could jeopardise the mission.
After a US jet was downed by Iranian forces earlier this month, Trump is said to have spent hours screaming at aides in the West Wing, reminded of the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis.
“If you look at what happened with Jimmy Carter… it cost them the election,” Trump said, according to sources familiar with the matter.
On April 3, an F-15 jet was shot down over Iran, leading to the high-stakes mission.
One of the crew members was rescued swiftly but the other spent more than 24 hours behind enemy lines before being rescued.
Following the incident and receiving news that two airmen were missing, “Trump screamed at aides for hours,” according to WSJ.
The US President’s most senior aides and administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance and White House chief-of-staff Susie Wiles, dialled into the Situation Room over the next 24-hours to receive updates.
A senior administration official said that although Trump was not included in the meeting he was kept updated “at meaningful moments” on the phone.
“Aides kept the president out of the room as they got minute-by-minute updates because they believed his impatience wouldn’t be helpful,” the official told the outlet.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt added that Trump had “remained a steady leader our country needs”.
“President Trump campaigned proudly on his promise to deny the Iranian regime the ability to develop a nuclear weapon, which is what this noble operation accomplishes.”
In a race against time to rescue the second airman, the president was informed on the evening of April 4 that he has been extracted by the US.
At the time of the rescue mission, a senior administration official said the rescue was made possible by the support of the CIA, which alerted the Pentagon and the White House of the airman’s location.
They added: “This was the ultimate ‘needle in a haystack’, but in this case it was a brave American soul inside a mountain crevice, invisible but for [the] CIA’s capabilities.”
