US Presidency
2020

Iran has been the leading sponsor of terrorism, and their pursuit of nuclear weapons threatens the civilized world. We will never let that happen. Last week, we took decisive action to stop a ruthless terrorist from threatening American lives. At my direction, the United States military eliminated the world’s top terrorist, Qasem Soleimani. As the head of the Quds Force, Soleimani was personally responsible for some of the absolutely worst atrocities. He trained terrorist armies, including Hezbollah, launching terrorist strikes against civilian targets. He fueled bloody civil wars all across the region. He viciously wounded and murdered thousands of U.S. troops, including the planting of roadside bombs that maim and dismember their victims. Soleimani directed the recent attacks on US personnel in Iraq that badly wounded four service members and killed one American, and he orchestrated the violent assault on the US embassy in Baghdad. In recent days, he was planning new attacks on American targets, but we stopped him. Soleimani’s hands were drenched in both American and Iranian blood. He should have been terminated long ago.