Donald Trump declined to formally address the nation on Thursday, in the hours following an unprecedented airstrike in Iraq that left top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani dead, choosing to give a punctuated statement to reporters from his resort in Mar-a-Lago instead the following afternoon.
The Defense Department first announced Soleimani had been killed on Thursday evening.
Unlike his predecessors, Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, who have paused to address the country following pivotal U.S.-led strikes in the past, Trump spent much of Friday attacking political rivals on Twitter, boosting book sales for his allies, and boasting about the Thursday night hit on Soleimani, a brutal commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, which took place near the Baghdad International Airport in Iraq. Continue reading.