Trump sought strike on top Iran military figure for political reasons – Esper book

Robert O'Brien told top general shortly before 2020 election that Trump wanted to kill unnamed official, according to Esper memoir

Shortly before the 2020 election, Donald Trump's national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, stunned" the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff by saying the president wanted to kill a senior Iranian military officer operating outside the Islamic Republic.

This was a really bad idea with very big consequences," Mark Esper, Trump's second and last secretary of defense, writes in his new memoir, adding that Gen Mark Milley suspected O'Brien saw the strike purely in terms of Trump's political interests.