'His impatience...': Trump excluded from control room during airmen rescue
What's the story
President Donald Trump was reportedly furious after two American pilots went missing in Iran on Good Friday. According to The Wall Street Journal, Trump "screamed at aides for hours" upon learning of the incident on April 3. He was later "kept out of the room" while his team was given minute-by-minute updates. One crew member was rescued soon after ejecting from the aircraft, but the second remained behind enemy lines for over 24 hours before being safely extracted.
Crisis management
Trump kept out of Situation Room meetings
The Wall Street Journal report added that Trump's fears of a potential hostage crisis, similar to the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, only added to his anger. "Images of the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis—one of the biggest international policy failures of a presidency in recent times—had been looming large in his mind," the report said. Over the next 24 hours, his senior aides and administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, attended Situation Room meetings for updates.
Report
'Aides kept the president out of the room'
However, Trump was not included in the meeting but was kept informed "at meaningful moments" over the phone, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a senior administration official. "Aides kept the president out of the room....because they believed his impatience wouldn't be helpful," the official said. After the second airman was rescued on April 4, a senior Trump admin official said the CIA played a crucial role by misleading Iran into believing that he had already been found.
Rescue operation
CIA misled Iran to rescue airman
The senior Trump administration official called it "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." After the successful rescue, Trump boasted about the mission on Truth Social and went to bed at 2:00am. "This brave Warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by....enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour," he said.
Diplomatic tensions
Threatened Iran with nuclear weapons
The next morning, Trump ordered Iran to "open the F***in' Strait, you crazy b*******, or you'll be living in Hell." On April 7, he threatened that a "whole civilization will die tonight" unless Iran opened the strait. When asked about his unusual messages, Trump reportedly said he came up with the idea to praise Allah himself in a bid to seem off-kilter and offensive.