Donald Trump ‘screamed at aides for hours’ following the downing of an American jet on Good Friday.
The US President was also ‘kept out of the room’ while his team was given minute-by-minute updates, according to a report.
On April 3, an F-15E Strike Eagle with two crew members was shot down by Iranian forces in a dramatic escalation of the war.
It was believed to be the first US plane brought down by enemy fire during the conflict, as images of the wreckage circulated widely on social media.
Following the news, Trump ‘screamed at aides for hours’, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, as images of the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis loomed heavy in his mind.
He demanded that the military retrieve the pilots immediately, but US troops hadn’t been on the ground in Iran since the government overthrow that led to the hostage crisis, and any operation would be intensely risky.
Aides kept Trump out of the room as they received minute-by-minute updates about the mission, believing the president’s impatience wouldn’t be helpful.
Instead, they updated him at meaningful moments, a senior administration official told the outlet.
While one pilot was rescued seven hours later, the other remained missing until late Saturday evening, when he was finally saved in a high-stakes extraction.
It wasn’t until after 2am that Trump went to bed.
Six hours later, however, he was back on Truth Social and published one of his most aggressive posts yet, designed to push the regime into reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
‘Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F****n’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH!’ he wrote on Easter morning from the White House residence.
‘Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.’
Aides were subsequently flooded with calls from Republican senators and Christian leaders, asking why Trump would add the Islamic prayer and use the F-word so publicly.
When one adviser later questioned the president about it, he said he came up with the ‘Allah idea’ himself, according to the outlet.
Trump said he wanted to seem as unstable and insulting as possible, believing it could pressure the Iranians to the negotiating table.
It was a language, he said, that Iranians would understand. But he was also worried about the potential fallout, asking advisers: ‘How’s it playing?’
