Donald Trump was reportedly excluded from the Situation Room by his own military advisors during a high-risk mission to rescue a downed American airman in Iran, over concerns that his temperament could jeopardise the operation.
According to The Wall Street Journal, senior administration officials deliberately kept the US president out of the command room as they received minute-by-minute updates on the extraction of an airman whose F-15 jet had been shot down by Iranian forces. One crew member was rescued swiftly, but the other spent more than 24 hours behind enemy lines before being recovered.
The decision to exclude Trump came after he had spent hours screaming at aides in the West Wing upon learning that two airmen were missing, drawing parallels to the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis. A senior administration official told the outlet: “Aides kept the president out of the room as they got minute-by-minute updates because they believed his impatience wouldn’t be helpful.”
Vice President JD Vance and White House chief-of-staff Susie Wiles dialled into the Situation Room for updates, while Trump was kept informed by phone “at meaningful moments”. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted the president had “remained a steady leader our country needs” and noted that the operation successfully prevented Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
The rescue was made possible by the CIA, which alerted the Pentagon and the White House to the airman’s location. A senior administration official described it as “the ultimate ‘needle in a haystack’”, adding: “In this case it was a brave American soul inside a mountain crevice, invisible but for the CIA’s capabilities.”
