As Mideast Tensions Flare, Trump Finds Solace in New Adviser
- O’Brien flown cross-country to Mar-a-Lago for Soleimani strike
- Critics question whether Trump is receiving robust advice
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As President Donald Trump prepared to kill a top Iranian general on Thursday, vastly escalating his conflict with Tehran, he sought the advice of a relatively new aide who has rapidly become indispensable to the president: National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien.
O’Brien was celebrating the holidays in Pasadena, California, more than two thousand miles from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Other key aides including Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney consulted with the president remotely, but a government jet was dispatched to fetch O’Brien and bring him to Palm Beach for the strike on Qassam Soleimani.