Donald Trump once warned Barack Obama against playing the Iran card to boost his political prospects by starting a war.
Eight years later, Trump is showing no reluctance to capitalize politically on his order to kill a top Iranian general, drawing accusations that he is weaponizing foreign policy for his campaign's own gain.
Trump's campaign has used the killing of Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard's elite Quds Force, as a cudgel against the president's Democratic political rivals and to divert attention from his impending impeachment trial in the Senate.
"Americans want to see their President acting decisively and defending the nation's interests and that's exactly what President Trump did," Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said.
"Republicans are good at killing terrorists and this is a reminder of that," added Michael Ahrens, communications director of the Republican National Committee.
The president was expected to amplify those messages on Thursday in Toledo, Ohio, during his first campaign rally since the drone strike last week. Trump's campaign purchased ads on Facebook highlighting the Soleimani killing.
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The Pentagon said Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region."
But the Trump administration has refused to provide any specific information about the nature or timing of the alleged plots, leaving Trump open to suspicions that the attack was driven, at least in part, by a belief that it might help him in the polls.
Those around the president strongly dismiss any suggestion of political motive. But they have been happy to use the killing to contrast Trump with his Democratic rivals, painting him as a strong leader and accusing Democrats of appeasing Iran with a failed foreign policy approach.
Despite the short shelf life of most Trump news stories, Trump aides recognized immediately that the strike approved by the president at his private club during his winter break from Washington could play an outsize role in the upcoming campaign, particularly if Iran retaliates and the region descends into chaos.
The president himself told one confidant after the attack that he wanted to deliver a warning to Iran not to mess with American assets. And he was eager to project an image of strength and replicate the message he delivered late last year after approving the raid that killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: The U.S. will hunt down its enemies anywhere in the world.
The al-Baghdadi killing has become a staple in Trump's campaign ads and at his rallies, and Soleimani's death was expected to receive similar treatment.
ANOTHER dead terrorist," declared the subject line of a Sunday campaign email blast, which described Soleimani as a monster responsible for THOUSANDS of American deaths." The president campaigned on the dual promises of getting tough on Iranian aggression and withdrawing U.S. troops from overseas entanglements priorities seemingly at odds with one another in the wake of the strike.
Trump has increased the number of troops in the region since he took office, despite his promise to end the endless wars" in the Middle East.
Trump's foreign policy, dating back to his first campaign, has always had its internal inconsistencies: As much as Trump pushed the drawdown of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, he promised nightly to bomb the hell out of ISIS and has been eager to strike a posture of American military strength.
But Trump aides expressed confidence that the president's supporters would not punish him for prioritizing one over the other, at least in the short term. Instead, they argued that targeting what they called terrorist leaders had little to do with prospects for a protracted ground war.
And they argued that the killing could be used to create their own version of Obama's unofficial 2012 slogan, Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive.
At the same time, Trump's campaign and White House have tried to use Democratic criticism of the president's killing of Soleimani to paint party members as radical and out of touch.
Two of Trump's rivals, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders called Soleimani's killing an assassination a label that implies a political rather than national security motive.
Trump's advisers, meanwhile, are out to make the case that the president continues to tend to the nation's business in this case, the elimination of a dangerous adversary while Democrats obsess over impeachment.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
