Trump was excluded from the high-stakes meeting (Image: The Washington Post, The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Donald Trump was reportedly barred from the Situation Room by military advisors during a high-risk rescue mission in Iran.
The US President was allegedly excluded from the critical meeting amid concerns over his temperament.
Trump was kept away from the command room as a high-stakes extraction of a downed American airman in Iran was carried out.
The Wall Street Journal reported that senior administration officials feared his volatile temper could put the mission at risk.
After a US jet was shot down by Iranian forces earlier this month, Trump is said to have spent hours screaming at aides in the West Wing, haunted by memories of the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis.
“If you look at what happened with Jimmy Carter… it cost them the election,” Trump said, according to sources familiar with the matter.
On April 3, an F-15 jet was brought down over Iran, triggering the high-stakes operation.
One crew member was rescued promptly, while the other spent more than 24 hours behind enemy lines before being retrieved.
Following the incident and upon learning that two airmen were missing, “Trump screamed at aides for hours,” according to the WSJ.
The President’s most senior aides and administration officials, amongst them Vice President JD Vance and White House chief-of-staff Susie Wiles, joined the Situation Room remotely over the following 24 hours to receive updates.
A senior administration official confirmed that while Trump was not present in the meeting, he was kept informed “at meaningful moments” via telephone.
“Aides kept the president out of the room as they got minute-by-minute updates because they believed his impatience wouldn’t be helpful,” the official told the outlet.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt added that Trump had “remained a steady leader our country needs”.
“President Trump campaigned proudly on his promise to deny the Iranian regime the ability to develop a nuclear weapon, which is what this noble operation accomplishes.”
In a race against time to rescue the second airman, the president was informed on the evening of April 4 that he has been extracted by the US.
During the rescue mission, a senior administration official revealed that the operation was made possible thanks to vital CIA support, which had alerted both the Pentagon and the White House to the airman’s whereabouts.
They added: “This was the ultimate ‘needle in a haystack’, but in this case it was a brave American soul inside a mountain crevice, invisible but for [the] CIA’s capabilities.”