Qasem Soleimani
A Permission
U.S.
Trump had expressed a desire to target Soleimani in a 2017 meeting with then National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. On January 13, 2020, five senior current and former Trump Administration officials told NBC News that Trump had authorized the killing of Soleimani in June 2019 on the condition that he had been involved in the killing of any American, a decision backed by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.