Trump vs. Obama: Death of Terrorist Leaders
The president's comments represented a stark departure from how he felt in 2012
A U.S. Special Forces operation led to the death of the Islamic State's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in Syria. In his announcement, President Donald Trump said al-Baghdadi "died like a dog" while detonating an explosive vest that killed himself and three children. Following the raid, the White House released a photo from inside the Situation Room. Two photos and they're quite noticeable in which each administration has handled counter terrorism.
One can get the impression that these are a bunch of professionals focused on a serious job of watching over a dangerous operation that would inevitably lead to death and that could go horribly wrong. For Trump, on the other hand, there is no distinction between the image of the job and the work itself. He promoted his own role in the al-Baghdadi raid, put himself on a pedestal compared with previous presidents, and, in the end, what should have been an announcement of the U.S.'s most significant counterterrorism victory in five years turned into another Trump show episode.
The Obama-era photo and speech, meanwhile during the Bin-Laden raid, strikes a significantly less formal tone while delivering the gravity of the moment. As the Associated Press reported, the 2011 photo depicts a packed room of advisers and reflects Obama's "interest in receiving a broad array of opinions." Osama bin Laden, the founder and first leader of the Islamist terrorist group, Al-Qaeda, was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, by United States Navy SEALs of the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group also known as SEAL Team Six. Obama is an object in the 2011 photo, while Trump is the subject of the 2019 photo. The president's comments represented a stark departure from how he felt in 2012. "Stop congratulating Obama for killing Bin Laden," he tweeted. "The Navy Seals killed Bin Laden."
Brut.