FLASHBACK: Soleimani Practically Begged Trump to Attack Him in 2018

Matt Margolis | 5:08 PM on January 03, 2020

Head of the Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force, Gen. Qassim Soleimani, center, attends a meeting of a group of the Guard members with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran, Iran. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

The whole world is buzzing about General Soleimani, leader of Iran’s Quds Force, being killed in the targeted airstrike ordered by Trump in retaliation for the Iran-backed militia attacking the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.

It seems like it wasn’t all that long ago that social media was buzzing about Trump’s epic Game of Thrones-themed meme announcing “sanctions are coming” to Iran in November 2018—and Soleimani’s Game of Thrones-themed response.

Qasem Soleimani, the Commander of the Quds Force, Iran’s external security agency, has posted this image on his Instagram in response to Trump’s tweet. pic.twitter.com/l1zdRIBK9f

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 3, 2018

Soleimani’s original Instagram post is no longer available, but in addition to the meme, Soleimani wrote, “Come! We are waiting,” in Farsi. “I am your enemy. Quds Force is your enemy. You start this war, but we will finish it.”

Soleimani’s death was confirmed by the Pentagon on Thursday evening. “At the direction of the President, the U.S. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization,” the Pentagon said in a statement.

Soleimani may have stood against Trump, but he is no longer standing.