White House reveals Trump was not in the Situation Room during his first military raid

Donald Trump’s first counter-terrorist military action as Commander-in-Chief was a raid on an al Qaeda compound in Yemen that tragically resulted in the death of U.S. Navy Seal Chief William “Ryan” Owens, as well as other injuries to service members and, reportedly, double-digit civilian casualties.

Already, military sources have been saying that the raid was the product of insufficient intelligence, and one Democrat has already called for a briefing on the raid. The raid was planned under the Obama administration, but approved by Trump during a dinner meeting during the first week of his presidency.

As the details on the ground during the raid become clearer, so do those of Trump’s actions during the raid, and they are disturbing. At the White House briefing, NBC’s Hallie Jackson asked White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer where Trump was during the operation, and received this stunning reply (emphasis mine):

JACKSON: Where was the president the night of the raid? How did he learn about Chief Owens’ death? And do you still stand by your characterization that it was successful?

SPICER: The president was here in the residence. He was kept in touch with his national security staff. Secretary Mattis and others had kept him updated on both the raid and the death of Chief Owens, as well as the 4 other individuals that were injured. So, he was kept apprised of the situation throughout the evening. And again, I think I would go back to what I said yesterday: It’s hard to ever call something a complete success when you have a loss of life or people injured.

That is quite a contrast from our last popularly-elected president and our most recent popular vote winner, both of whom were famously present for this raid on an al Qaeda compound in Pakistan:

3:30 pm EDT – @POTUS watches situation on ground in Abbottabad live in Situation Room#UBLRaid pic.twitter.com/59KPF7eUTr

— CIA (@CIA) May 1, 2016

Even more disturbing is the realization that while this heavy responsibility was unfolding, Trump was otherwise occupied. A look at his Twitter feed shows what was on Trump’s mind between the time he was briefed on the raid Saturday evening, and the release of his statement on Chief Owens’ death Sunday afternoon:

Somebody with aptitude and conviction should buy the FAKE NEWS and failing @nytimes and either run it correctly or let it fold with dignity!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2017

Just after releasing that statement, Trump was back on Twitter attacking two of his primary campaign opponents:

The joint statement of former presidential candidates John McCain & Lindsey Graham is wrong – they are sadly weak on immigration. The two…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2017

…Senators should focus their energies on ISIS, illegal immigration and border security instead of always looking to start World War III.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2017

That the Commander-in-Chief chose to spend those fraught hours, during a dangerous counter-terrorism action, slinging insults on Twitter at a media outlet and Members of Congress is yet further proof of Trump’s manifest unfitness for the job.