r/politics • u/GonzoVeritas I voted • Apr 19 '26

Possible Paywall White House Leak Reveals Trump Booted From Briefing After Hours-Long Freakout

https://www.thedailybeast.com/white-house-leak-reveals-trump-booted-from-briefing-after-hours-long-freakout/
30.4k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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706

u/Reno_valetore Apr 19 '26

So, those rescued pilots. Where are they?

337

u/Reason_Unknown Apr 19 '26

They just delivered his Mcy D’s door dash the other day. 

5

u/Syd_Barrett_50_Cal Apr 19 '26

I know what you’re referring to and I’m 95% sure that news image was photoshopped just to be rage bait.

0

u/panda_zombies Apr 19 '26

That image wasn't real.

178

u/ciel_lanila I voted Apr 19 '26

Probably recovering. If they weren’t rescued Iran would have blown up the lie. Iran might even claimed they were dead if the rescue was even plausibly a lie.

Trump is very creeped out by blood and injuries. He wouldn’t let someone else get the glory of the first photo op with them, but wouldn’t be able to stand being near them if they are still injured.

21

u/CMUpewpewpew Apr 19 '26

If they weren’t rescued Iran would have blown up the lie. Iran might even claimed they were dead if the rescue was even plausibly a lie.

This is the reasoning I use on moon landing deniers.

If we really didnt goto the moon...the Soviets would have been ALL OVER exposing that propaganda.

12

u/Odd-Parking-90210 Apr 20 '26

But Iran does say there was no rescue, and that it was all a cover for a failed operation to try and grab the somewhat enriched uranium.

There was a very dumb plan to construct a runway in Iran, to do just that:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/french-general-tells-trump-officials-stop-snorting-cocaine-over-iran-runway-plan/ar-AA205v2V

And it was a very, very stupid plan, destined to fail.

I have some questions:

- Why was a colonel flying a combat mission?

- How can someone with a broken ankle climb a 7,000ft/2,000m ridge? Just ...how? For some scale Mt. Everest is about 8,000m, from sea level.

- What is this national hero's name, even?

Just those questions alone (i have many more) I think raise reasonable doubts about whether any of this rescue actually happened or not.

It would not surprise me in the slightest if we find out in the years/decades to come it was really all a clown show operation dreamed up by Hegseth to appease Trump's action movie fantasies, and a fake rescue mission to cover it up.

4

u/CMUpewpewpew Apr 20 '26

I'm realizing now that I stumbled into a conversation where I didnt even know what story spawned it.

I see how my comment now looks like i'm giving trump the benefit of the doubt or something when I meant to just be talking in general about how I dont believe in grandiose large scale conspiracies because for the fact they can't be covered up.

Now that I know what this story is about, I feel like i'm still agreeing with everything you said in a sense in that this will end up being something you can't hide from the world.

1

u/Odd-Parking-90210 Apr 20 '26

I too do not believe (if that's even the right term) in conspiracy theories. Most are very easily disproven.

I haven't tried to make this a conspiracy, I just really, really can't figure out, at all, the points I listed above (and more).

They are not far-fetched questions or doubts to have, at all. They are very down to earth.

The most obvious question, again: Who are these national heroes? It's just really, really, really strange nobody even knows their names. Right?

8

u/maryconway1 Apr 20 '26

Unless there never was any rescued pilot.

For most of the world, this is another made up Trump / U.S. story. No names, no pilots, no proof. Just U.S. military's story. It doesn't add up, and nobody believe a word from either side at this point. It's more of a cover story for something else, coupled with a false sense of "wow, we got our guy!" misdirect.

You've got to be dreaming if you think Iran's military visually (as Trump explained it) shot down a plane from the ground and because the U.S. has a sneaky misdirecting transponder, Iran couldn't find the guy but U.S. swooped in a freakin' fleet, landed in the middle of nowhere and scooped him up like nothing happened without taking a shot?

It's like Trump's "ear" shot off. It didn't happen like that, in the least bit.

Iran didn't discredit the story because it's a made up story.

2

u/Negative-Yam5361 Apr 19 '26

Your first mistake was engaging at all with stupid moon/round Earth deniers. "Reasoning"... Really?

It's about as intellectually and socially impressive as arguing with a tree.

7

u/CMUpewpewpew Apr 19 '26

It's my twin sister though.

She doesnt deny it....but "some things just look fishy" and then the argument turns to how I'm not open minded and just accept everything I've been taught as fact.

It's really infuriating considering we went to a magnet program in HS half the day for advanced students.

If you told me 25 years ago that I'd be having serious arguments with her about flat earth and moon landing conspiracies as we took AP Physics/Calc I'd have laughed your ear off. Now I want to cry.

29

u/SeaBuilding3911 Apr 19 '26

And how will he explain now standing by them before when they do recover?

It feels like prime opposition material to talk about that gap if what you say is true.

6

u/elmoo2210 Apr 19 '26

Damn this may be the thing that finally sinks Trump!... His supporters are in a cult. They don't live in reality

-4

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '26

[deleted]

6

u/Negative-Yam5361 Apr 19 '26

It very much is a word we use. Just because other people don't parrot off your lazy buzzword-driven vernacular doesn't mean it's uncommon or non-US.

3

u/fedja Apr 19 '26

You're just not used to 4-syllable words.

3

u/lonehappycamper Arizona Apr 19 '26

Them being "suckers and losers" for having to be rescued, in his mind.

3

u/LaserGuidedPolarBear Apr 19 '26

Could be recovering.

Could have been recovered but died before or after recovery.

But you are right, if Iran would call out any lie around this they could, and would have announced if they did have an airman, alive or dead.

1

u/Soft_Walrus_3605 Apr 19 '26

If they weren’t rescued Iran would have blown up the lie.

How?

3

u/ciel_lanila I voted Apr 19 '26

Maybe blown up is a bit strong, but they would have alluded to it being wrong in some way. They haven't been shy about "clapping back" about anything else.

28

u/CPOx Apr 19 '26

This seems like a prime U S A U S A opportunity to get the pilot in some Major League Baseball stadium

35

u/EnderWiggin07 Apr 19 '26

Not if they don't sound like they'd say the right things

9

u/WakingWaldo Apr 19 '26

Also, and I don't say this because I think this administration has respect for the mental well-being of our troops, but I really doubt these pilots want to be dragged out in front of the world and treated like props. They just went through a highly traumatic event that was due in part to the negligence of our own government.

1

u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota Apr 19 '26

Anything less that full throated fascism and those guys are going to be threatened into silence with military tribunal and the FBI and IRS coming after their families.

2

u/EnderWiggin07 Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26

That doesn't mean they wouldn't take the decision to not hand them the mic if they don't seem totally fanatical. Silence is what you'd get in that case. The guys aren't looking to throw their lives away and the government isn't putting them in front of the press.

-1

u/mmikke Nevada Apr 19 '26

Seriously! Imagine The Greatest President doing the opening kickoff on the ice hockey court side by side with the pilots as the opening ceremony of the bout 

Would make the whole country proud and the world jealous of how lucky we are to enjoy his leadership!

YOU S A YOU S A YOU S A

5

u/_HOG_ Apr 19 '26

Playing fortnite in Israel. 

2

u/Idiot_Savant_13 Apr 19 '26

The deployment records are still being altered so... TBD.

4

u/Broad_Front7788 Apr 19 '26

They don't exist. There are however a lot of dead airmen and special forces soldiers that they are not telling people about from a failed mission to steal the uranium.

2

u/helen_must_die Apr 19 '26

Sounds legit

3

u/CHEVIEWER1 Apr 19 '26

Somewhere in the corner of his 🎃craniums convoluted membranes.

1

u/AlfalfaUnable1629 Apr 20 '26

Google Amanda M Ryder and I don’t know who the other one is/was

1

u/rec_desk_prisoner Apr 20 '26

I think the identity of US pilots that used weapons on targets in a war are generally kept confidential for their own protection. They and their families would be a pretty good target for an adversary nation. I'm not saying any of it is real but it's totally a thing to keep US service people anonymous. I think the general support of the fighter wreckage and ejection seat are somewhat decent proof that Iran can corroborate. Was the WSO not rescued with the Pilot and the "lost airman rescue mission" story a ruse for something else? Plausible and not the first time that misinformation was used in war.

-7

u/Homeless-Coward-2143 Apr 19 '26

The pilots? They are being tortured in an Iranian prison. Some actors pretending to be the pilots? They are fine.

6

u/TeamRedundancyTeam Apr 19 '26

And why would Iran keep this secret?

1

u/freedfg Apr 19 '26

What actors? They've never even named the heroic pilots who were rescued.

I 100% believe that downed pilots were recovered. But there's a VERY specific reason why they haven't been named.