Did Trump kill Soleimani to avoid another Benghazi?

US President Donald Trump said at a campaign rally in Toledo, Ohio, on Friday that if he had not sent troops to protect the embassy in Baghdad, the demonstrators might have broken in and killed Americans or taken them hostage, a repeat of the 2012 storming of a US diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, in which the ambassador was killed.

According to the Washington Times, the tragic events of 2012 had a deep impact on Trump also in terms of his decision to order the strike that killed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani.

“You can’t underestimate the impact that had on the president’s decision when he saw the burned-out embassy in Baghdad,” conservative journalist and Trump’s longtime friend Christopher Ruddy told the Washington Times. “I think he was pretty shocked.”

Ruddy highlighted that the assault against the US consulate and the death of four Americans in Libya, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, has always been deemed by Trump as “a shameful mark on our country’s standing in the world.”

“And he thinks part of that was Obama’s weakness that led to it — people thought they could get away without reprisals,” Ruddy further said.

According to the Washington Times, Trump has often referred to his reactions to the attacks targeting the embassy in Baghdad from December 31 as “the opposite of Benghazi.”

Reuters contributed to this report.