Trump’s accounting of the intelligence that convinced him Americans were under an imminent threat at four embassies keeps changing. The original statement by him declared four specific embassies were targeted for an imminent attack. Within days, he was saying, “Soleimani was planning future attacks.” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has also altered his original statement that he had no specific information on when or where these attacks in the region would occur. To stay aligned with Trump, he changed his statement citing there was evidence of an imminent threat to embassies but offered no details.
The claim that it was clear Soleimani was in Baghdad to carry out a plan to attack these embassies has not been corroborated with evidence by the President or anyone in the Administration. Secretary of Defense Marc Esper stated on Face the Nation, “I didn’t see specific evidence that Soleimani was going after four American embassies.” He went on to say, “my expectation was he would go after embassies.” So no facts as promised, and based on supposition troops have been deployed and Middle East instability has worsened.
Trump decided to take the most aggressive approach to deal with Soleimani’s anti-American activities in the Middle East. The shifting narratives about whether attacks were imminent indicate Trump could be lying to justify his call to assassinate the Iranian General. Is the false imminent threat claim the Trump version of the George W. Bush false claim of “weapons of mass destruction?”
Trump’s pattern of disclosure is to make sweeping generalities that support actions he takes without providing details that support the assertions. He resists transparency which is typical behavior for someone who is lying and manipulating to cover-up problematic or illegal actions. Trump’s lawless, lack of character is changing what America stands for. State to state movements to fight the corrupting of our government by Trump, Pompeo, AG Barr, and many other officials must continue to save our democracy. Putin has never been happier.
