Trump’s defense chief refused to back claims about slain Iranian Maj. Gen. Soleimani

Trump’s defense chief says he was accused of disloyalty after he refused to back claims the slain Iranian Maj. Gen. Soleimani was planning to attack 4 US Embassies

Insider-May 9th 2022

Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper says in his newly released memoir that allies of President Donald Trump complained that he was “not loyal” after he did not back the president’s 2020 allegations that the slain Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani had sought to attack four US Embassies.

In his new book, “A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times,” Esper — who served under Trump as the Army’s secretary from 2017 to 2019 and in his role as the Pentagon chief from 2019 until his November 2020 termination by the then-president — writes his intelligence briefings did not indicate that Soleimani was specifically eyeing four embassies.

While Esper writes he was concerned about attacks, he didn’t feel comfortable backing up Trump’s assertions, which he describes in the book — adding that the former president displayed a pattern of dishonesty.

“The simple fact was that Trump usually exaggerated and often made statements that could not be confirmed; others were outright fabrications. I became ensnared in one of those rhetorical webs on a Sunday morning talk show,” the former defense chief writes.

Esper recalls in his book a January 2020 Fox News interview featuring Trump. The president made allegations that the ex-defense secretary says weren’t included in CIA intelligence reports.

On January 10 that year, just days after Soleimani was killed by the US, “Trump told Fox News that Soleimani planned to attack several diplomatic posts in the Middle East, remarking, ‘I can reveal that I believe it probably would’ve been four embassies,'” he writes.

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