Trump left ‘top secret Iran war plans on couch’ at his golf resort Mar-a-Lago: Report

Ex-President of the United States, Donald Trump, during his tenure at the Oval Office "left a top-secret Iran war plan on a couch" at his New Jersey golf resort, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said in the draft of his new memoir. In his testimony with the prosecutors from special counsel Jack Smith’s team, Meadows, the final White House chief of staff under the last administration and the key witness to the federal inquiries, said that he, in fact, soft-pedalled the incident in the final published version of the book as it could be "problematic" to the Republican leader.

“On the couch in front of [Trump’s] desk, there’s a four-page report typed up by [Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley] himself,” the draft that was accessed by the American broadcaster ABC read. 

“It shows the general’s own plan to attack Iran, something he urged President Trump to do more than once during his presidency."

Meadows said that he learned about the "shocking incident" from a ghostwriter and a publicist who requested anonymity. Special Council Smith has been overseeing the Justice Department's two distinct lines of inquiry in Trump's classified document case. One is the subversion of the 2020 election by interference that culminated in the January 6 Capitol siege during the congressional certification of the Electoral College results that sealed the then-Democrat candidate Joe Biden's victory. The second is Trump's mishandling of hundreds of classified documents after he left the Oval Office. 

Trump is charged with 37 counts for illegally retaining and improperly showing the classified document to at least four men who did not have prior security clearances. Efforts to obtain those documents were also defied by the ex-US President. In June, the ex-US President was arraigned in a Florida court. 

'It is like, highly confidential': Trump

The document mentioned by Meadows outlined the operational US military plan of attack on Iran. Trump was charged with two counts of attempting to “alter, destroy, mutilate or conceal evidence” during an investigation that accused him of taking the classified material to his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. The ex-commander-in-chief touted the material as "ammunition" during his awkward feud with United States' highest-ranking military officer, Gen. Mark Milley.

A key audio tape retrieved detailed that Milley made incessant efforts to prevent Trump from attacking Iran during his final days in the White House resulting in a sparring and tumultuous relationship with the ex-President. Trump, had taken the Iran war plan to New Jersey and whipped it out to show the underlings during an interview in 2021 whilst Meadows collected the material for his book—The Chief’s Chief.

“It is like, highly confidential. Secret. This is secret information,” Trump said, as per th audio tapes of the meeting. “Look, look at this. This was done by the military and given to me. As president, I could have declassified, but now I can’t," he continued. 

Walking behind Trump from left are, Attorney General William Barr, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Credit: AP

Trump believed that the classified material would be of immeasurable value to Iran's geopolitical rivals like Israel or Saudi Arabia. While he was in their possession, Trump did not declassify large numbers of secret documents during his presidency, revealed Meadows, also doubling down on the former President's unsubstantiated claim that he had a so-called “standing order” to declassify any material as a president. Meadows, despite being Trump’s top lieutenant, has not been named as an unindicted co-conspirator by Smith, nor has he been charged in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents or federal January 6 cases.