Trump on the evening of January 17 told the details of the air strike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in front of Republican sponsors at the Mar-a-Lago resort.

In a speech at the ballroom of the Mar-a-Lago resort, South Florida, President Donald Trump insisted Soleimani "said bad things" about the United States and this led him to make an air strike. killed Iranian general.

"What else do we have to hear?", Trump asked. "How much more do we have to hear?"

The US president did not mention the "potential threat" that led to the air strike that killed Soleimani, the justification given by the Trump administration after the attack. Instead, he described Soleimani as a "noticeable terrorist on the US list".

Trump recounted details he had watched from afar when Soleimani arrived at Baghdad airport, where the Iranian general met Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Iraqi paramilitary force Kata'ib Hezbollah.

However, the US President gave false information that Soleimani was meeting "Hezbollah leader" (the Iranian-backed Lebanese rebel group, completely different from Kata'ib Hezbollah).

He went on to recount how he heard military officials present while watching the airstrike "from cameras thousands of miles away in the sky." Trump also acknowledged that the attack on Soleimani's killing "rocked the world".

Qassem Soleimani, commander of Quds task force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), was killed in a US air strike outside Baghdad airport, Iraq, on January 3. The US government explained the decision to prevent potential attacks that threatened the Americans.

President Donald Trump on January 10 said General Soleimani planned to attack four U.S. embassies in the Middle East, including a building in Baghdad. But US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on 13 January there was no concrete evidence of the information. Trump wrote on Twitter that the threat from Soleimani was imminent, but "that doesn't really matter because of his terrible past".

Iran has vowed revenge for Soleimani's death, with the first act being the launch of dozens of missiles into two US military bases based in Iraq. Esmaeili said the next step in Iran's fierce retaliation plan will be taken, to end "illegal American presence in the region".