President Donald Trump revealed during a press conference on Thursday some details surrounding his decision to kill Iranian terrorist Qassem Soleimani last week, saying that Soleimani was planning to blow up a U.S. embassy.
“We killed a man who killed many, many Americans and many, many people, thousands and thousands of people,” Trump said during a press conference at the White House. “We caught a total monster and we took him out and that should have happened a long time ago. We did it because they were looking to blow up our embassy.”
“We also did it for other reasons that were very obvious, somebody died, one of our military people died, people badly wounded, just a week before, and we did it,” Trump continued. “And we had a shot at him and I took it and that shot was pinpoint accurate and that was the end of a monster. Really, that was the second attack. We didn’t start it, they started it by killing one of our people and wounding badly other of our people. That you call retribution.
“Iran went in and they hit us with missiles. Shouldn’t have done that,” Trump added. “Fortunately for them, nobody was hurt, nobody was killed, nothing happened. They landed. Very little damage, even, to the base. They landed. But we had a chance to take out a monster, we took him out and it should have been done a long time ago.”
When asked about whether he would go to Congress to seek approval if further military action is needed, Trump responded, “It would all depend on the circumstance. I don’t have to and you shouldn’t have to because you have to able to make split second decisions. Sometimes you have to move very, very quickly. In certain cases, I wouldn’t mind doing it.”
“You know what bothers me? When I see a Nancy Pelosi trying to defend this monster from Iran whose killed so many people,” Trump continued. “So many people are walking around now without legs and without arms because he was the big roadside bomb guy. He was the one that sent them to Afghanistan, he send them to Iraq. That was his favorite thing. He thought it was wonderful. He doesn’t think it’s so wonderful anymore. When Nancy Pelosi of the Democrats wanted to defend him, I think that’s a bad thing for the country. I think it’s a big losing argument politically, too.”
Trump concluded his remarks about ongoing tensions with Iran by noting that the Iran nuclear deal was about to expire, so criticisms that his withdrawal from the deal sparked Iran’s aggression are not accurate.
“The JCPOA is close to expiring,” Trump said. “In other words, if I didn’t terminate it, it expires in a very short period of time. One of the problems, of which there was many, there was $150 billion, $1.8 billion in cash, all that money, and then that money was used for terror. If you look at Iran, it wasn’t so bad until they got all that money. They used that money for terror. That’s when it became really bad. Take a look, it really got bad when they $150 billion, $1.8 billion in cash.”