The President of the United States is widely considered to be the most powerful person on the planet.
But despite having this clout, commander-in-chief Donald Trump was reportedly 'kept out of the room' by members of his administration during tense crunch talks earlier this month.
A bombshell report has claimed that the door to the Situation Room was slammed shut on the 79-year-old by his top aides, as they couldn't bare to handle his hotheadedness.
It has been alleged that Trump was shunned from discussions about how to retrieve the pair of US pilots who went missing after their F-15E fighter jet was shot down over Iran on 3 April.
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Time was seriously of the essence too, as although one of the crew members was successfully tracked down, Iranian officials put a bounty on the head of the second airman who remained unaccounted for.
Trump is said to have 'screamed at aides for hours' after getting wind of the news and 'repeatedly' complained that 'the Europeans aren't helping' while officials attempted to coordinate a rescue mission, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.
According to insiders, Trump feared the situation could reach similar proportions to that of the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, which was widely considered to be the downfall of former president Jimmy Carter.
The publication reported that he was concerned this could scupper his political plans, saying: "If you look at what happened with Jimmy Carter…with the helicopters and the hostages, it cost them the election. What a mess."
Trump is said to have been keen to have to the US military retrieve the pilots as soon as possible, although government figures were conscious of jumping the gun and putting other service members in jeopardy.
As they 'believed his impatience wouldn’t be helpful' while they crafted a plan, the WSJ claims that 'aides kept the president out of the room as they got minute-by-minute updates'.
Instead, senior officials such as Vice President JD Vance and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles were given a blow-by-blow on the situation.
They were brought up to speed on each step, including 'the military entering Iran, the rescue planes getting stuck in the sand and the efforts to distract the Iranians', the WSJ claims.
Meanwhile, Trump was reportedly only 'updated at meaningful moments' by phone.
The military men onboard the F-15 that was shot down each ejected themselves from the aircraft after it was struck while flying over south-western Iran.
One pilot was rescued the same day, although the weapons operator who accompanied him onboard was left injured and stranded in a remote mountain region, before being forced to take refuge in a crevice.
The CIA were able to track the missing airman down and he was brought to safety on 5 April.
Trump later said he was being 'hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour' before he was finally extracted on Easter Sunday.
A few hours after the successful rescue mission, the president shared an expletive-ridden post on Truth Social where he told Iranian officials: "Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran.
"There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F**kin' Strait, you crazy b**tards, or you'll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah."
This post apparently also rattled members of his administration, who couldn't understand why he would make such a statement on the morning of a Christian holiday.
"When one adviser later asked him about it, he said he came up with the Allah idea himself," the WSJ reported.
"He said he wanted to seem as unstable and insulting as possible, believing it could bring the Iranians to the table, senior administration officials said. It was a language, he said, the Iranians would understand.
"But he was also concerned about the fallout. 'How’s it playing?' he asked advisers."
The publication also claimed that Trump's top aides have been 'taking turns' to tell the commander-in-chief that he ought to rein in the sporadic updates he has been sharing on the Iran war via social media and impromptu interviews with journalists.
LADbible has contacted the White House for comment.
Topics: US News, Donald Trump, Politics, Iran, World News
Olivia Burke