President Donald Trump couldn’t help himself from airing details about the high-stakes rescue mission for U.S. troops stranded in Iran despite a direct warning from his top general to zip it.
During Monday’s press briefing, the 79-year-old president eagerly recounted the successful rescue of two U.S. service members over the weekend after their F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down over Iran.
At one point, Trump decided to volunteer the number of U.S. forces involved in the mission—though he didn’t know the figure himself.
“How many men did you send altogether, approximately?” the commander-in-chief asked Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“Uhh, I’d love to keep that a secret,” Caine, 57, replied, prompting roaring laughter from the press.
“OK, well, we are,” a visibly amused Trump replied quickly, then went ahead and offered an estimate anyway.
“But I will tell you. The number, I’ll keep it a secret. But it was hundreds,” the president divulged.
The former reality TV host briefly paused his running disclosure of military secrets to gush about Caine—his favorite general—marveling, “Is he central casting?”
He continued, “But hundreds of people went into this journey. Hundreds of people could have been killed. Forget about the equipment—a lot of equipment—nobody cares. Hundreds of people could have been killed.”
“So we had people that were within the military that said, this is not a wise—and I understood that—but I decided to do it,” the president added. He revealed that Caine and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who appeared alongside him, “were totally on board.”
Earlier, Trump said while reading from his prepared remarks that the rescue involved 155 aircraft, including four bombers, 64 fighter jets, 48 refueling tankers, and 13 rescue aircraft. One of the aircraft, an A-10 Warthog, was hit during the mission and crashed Friday. The pilot managed to fly out of Iran before ejecting over friendly territory, Caine told reporters Monday.
The rescue effort was triggered on Friday after the two crew members of the F-15E Strike Eagle self-ejected when their jet was hit by Iranian military forces. The pilot was quickly rescued, but the weapons systems officer was not found until Sunday, after reportedly scaling a 7,000-foot ridge and hiding in a crevice for more than 24 hours.
During the press conference, Trump raged that a “leak” told an unidentified reporter over the weekend that the U.S. was still searching for the second crew member. He threatened the reporter with “jail” if they didn’t give up their anonymous source.
