MIAMI _ Speaking from a campaign rally at a West Miami-Dade County megachurch, President Donald Trump declared to a cheering audience of thousands that Iran's top general was dead, and said a "major attack" against the U.S. had been stopped.
Trump, in some of his first public comments about the deadly drone strike he ordered against Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iran's top military and intelligence official, said he had Soleimani killed in the name of peace.
"Qasem Soleimani has been killed and his bloody rampage is now forever gone," Trump said, drawing roars from a crowd he estimated above 5,000. "He was plotting attacks against Americans, but now we've ensured his atrocities have been stopped for good. They are stopped for good. I don't know if you know what was happening but he was planning a major attack and we got him."
Trump's comments from the pulpit at Ministerio Internacional El Rey Jesus' West Kendall sanctuary came about 24 hours after the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps., Soleimani, and six others were killed outside the Baghdad International Airport by the strike, ordered in retaliation for an assault on the U.S. embassy compound in Baghdad and deadly rocket attacks launched by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.
Soleimani was Iran's top general. He was also the commander of the country's elite Quds force, designated a foreign terrorist organization this year by the U.S. government.
"This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans," the Pentagon said in a statement Thursday night. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo elaborated Friday, saying in a CNN interview that Soleimani was in the process of planning new attacks that endangered U.S. civilians and soldiers.
Trump ordered the strike on Soleimani from Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, where he was vacationing for the holidays. Friday's rally in Kendall had been planned for weeks.
Trump said Friday, before leaving his resort for Miami, that he'd ordered Soleimani killed not to start a war, but to prevent one.
The strike on Soleimani inflamed an already-tense situation in the Middle East. Relations between U.S., Iran and Iraq had already been on edge for days due to deadly missile attacks by an Iranian-backed militia and a retaliatory U.S. missile strike that Iraqi officials said violated their sovereign air space. Iranian leaders promised to respond.
Protesters in Tehran reacted by taking to the street and burning U.S. flags. Defense officials told McClatchy that the U.S. is sending its 82nd Airborne Division brigade _ a total of about 4,000 troops _ to Kuwait.
"Soleimani was plotting a coup in Iraq," Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said Friday in a string of tweets that began after Soleimani's death was confirmed by the U.S. "He was corrupting/threatening politicians, exploiting Iraq's resources and bringing a large military force loyal to him, in an effort to make Iraq a platform to attack the U.S. & our allies."
Where Republicans celebrated Soleimani's killing as a sign of American strength, Democrats and government officials from other countries responded by warning that Trump was endangering U.S. citizens abroad and possibly pushing the country toward war. Some congressional Democrats accused Trump of engaging in an act of war without congressional authorization.
"There is no question that Qassim Soleimani was a threat to [U.S.] safety and security, and that he masterminded threats and attacks on Americans and our allies, leading to hundreds of deaths," presidential candidate and Afghanistan War veteran Pete Buttigieg said Friday in a statement. "But there are serious questions about how this decision was made and whether we are prepared for the consequences."
The strike on Soleimani is the second high-profile targeted killing in three months of an Islamic enemy deemed by the U.S. to be a terrorist. In October, the U.S. carried out a strike against Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, an attack Trump crowed about during a recent speech in Hollywood before a gathering of the Israeli-American Council.
Trump began his speech Friday at El Rey Jesus by reminding the crowd that he'd had al-Baghdadi killed. And, much like during his speech last month before the Israeli-American Council, during which he declared himself the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House, he said he's been the most supportive president for Christians.
Christians "have never had a greater champion _ not even close _ than you have in the White House right now. Look at the record," he said. "We've done things that nobody thought was possible. We're not only defending our constitutional rights, we're also defending religion itself, which is under siege."
