No, Eric Trump Did Not Have Advance Knowledge of Soleimani Airstrikes

The false claim that Eric Trump had advance knowledge of President Donald Trump’s plan to takeout top Iranian General Qasem Soleimani circulated on Twitter on Friday due to an unrelated December 31 tweet in which the first-son and Trump Organization executive warned that the U.S. was about “to open up a big ol’ can of whoop ass.”

Eric Trump’s since-deleted tweet was actually a reference to the news that American troops were reinforcing the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to secure the compound after mass protests this week. It’s unclear why the first-son took the tweet down, but since its removal, the post has been taken out of context by Twitter users — particularly a version that removes the URL noting that U.S. forces were fortifying the embassy — to suggest that Eric Trump knew of the Soleimani airstrikes before they were carried out by the Pentagon.

Ashton Pittman, the Twitter user and freelance journalist who first brought attention to the out of context Eric Trump tweet, has since corrected his initial claims about the deleted post.

“CORRECTION: I deleted the original Tweet after a reader … sent a screenshot of the tweet from before Eric Trump deleted it,” Pittman tweeted on Friday. “What Polititweet’s archiving of politicians’ tweets did not show is that he was quote tweeting a story about backup troops going into Iraq. That means the explanation could simply be that he was responding to news about backup troops, and didn’t have any fore knowledge about tonight’s strike, and deleted the tweet for some other reason. Regardless, I apologize for advancing any misinformation here.”

That means the explanation could simply be that he was responding to news about backup troops, and didn’t have any fore knowledge about tonight’s strike, and deleted the tweet for some other reason. Regardless, I apologize for advancing any misinformation here.

— Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman) January 3, 2020

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!