Trump complains dog got more credit for Baghdadi raid than he did
President makes comments to donors at Mar-a-Lago estate
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump complained that the military dog honoured for its role in the operation that killed Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi “got more credit” than he did, newly surfaced recordings reveal.
An audio of the president talking to Republican donors at his Mar-a-lago estate in Florida on Friday evening details him providing details of the targetted killing of Iranian military leader, Qassem Soleimani.
In his speech to the donors, details of which were obtained by CNN, he claimed Soleimani had been “saying bad things about our country” before the strike, which led to his decision to authorise his killing.
“How much of this s**t do we have to listen to?” Mr Trump asked.
“How much are we going to listen to?”
The killing of the 62-year-old military leader, sharply escalated tensions in the region, and Tehran responded to the killing by attacking two bases in northern Iraqi used by US and Iraqi forces.
Mr Trump claimed the attacks had not harmed any American soldiers, but on Friday the Pentagon admitted that 34 service members had diagnosed with traumatic brain injury following the rocket attacks.
During his speech Mr Trump also referred to last October’s military operation that resulted in the death of al-Baghdadi.
The month after the raid, Mr Trump honoured a military dog named Conan, that was involved in the operation, and gave it at an award at the White House.
“Conan came over from the Middle East — just arrived with some of the great people from the special forces that did the…flawless attack,” the president said. “And al-Baghdadi is gone. That was a flawless attack and I just met quite a few of them. And we just gave Conan a medal and a plaque.”
Speaking to donors in Florida, Mr Trump also repeated his claim the Isis leader had died “screaming”.
He said the “press wanted to give the dog much more credit than than they gave me” for the killing.
“It’s true. The dog got more credit than I did,” he said. “The dog Conan became very famous.”
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