President Donald Trump was hammered by two of his own officials after making “one of the biggest tactical miscalculations since the bombing of Iran began,” Axios reported on Tuesday.
Trump authorized strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, kicking off what Axios described Tuesday as a “world at war” as nations across the globe have joined in on the conflict. Among the largest challenges the United States has faced thus far has been Iran’s inexpensive drones, which have posed a “bigger problem than anticipated” to Trump’s war effort and are connected to the deaths of seven U.S. service members.
But last August, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy personally offered Trump a potential solution – a package of interceptor drones to “show his thanks” for U.S. support in Ukraine’s war with Russia, according to a PowerPoint presentation obtained exclusively by Axios. Trump, Axios learned, had declined the offer, only to reverse course last week.
"If there's a tactical error or a mistake we made leading up to this [war in Iran], this was it," a U.S. official told Axios, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
A Ukrainian official told Axios that the offer included the creation of “drone combat hubs” at U.S. military bases in the Middle East to directly combat Iran’s drone capabilities.
“We wanted to build the 'drone walls' and all the things necessary like the radar, et cetera," the Ukrainian official told Axios, also speaking on the condition of anonymity. “At that meeting... in August, Trump asked his team to work on it, but they have done nothing.”
Trump’s decision to turn down Zelenskyy’s offer, a U.S. official said, was potentially made due to the Ukrainian president being perceived as “too much of a self-promoter,” Axios wrote.
“We figured it was Zelenskyy being Zelenskyy. Somebody decided not to buy it," the U.S. official told Axios.
When asked for comment, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly shot down Axios’ reporting, calling the anonymous U.S. and Ukrainian officials “cowardly" and their claims “not accurate.”
“This characterization made by these cowardly unnamed sources is not accurate and proves that they are simply outside looking in,” Kelly told Axios. “[Defense] Secretary [Pete] Hegseth and the armed forces did an incredible job planning for all possible responses by the Iranian regime, and the undisputed success of Operation Epic Fury speaks for itself."