In his final days in office, former U.S. President Donald Trump expressed fears to friends that Iran would try to kill him in retaliation for the killing of legendary General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike on Baghdad airport on Trump's orders.

The Guardian published excerpts from The Divider, a book by journalists Peter Baker and Susan Glasser that explores the former president's tumultuous tenure in the White House.

The book takes an in-depth look at the Trump administration's policies toward Iran.

Publicly, the former president seemed to gloat after the successful strike on Soleimani, calling the slain Iranian general a "bad guy." “He was a bloodthirsty terrorist, and he’s no longer a terrorist. He’s dead.”

In reality, however, he wasn't so sure. About a year after the strike, in December 2020, Trump left a cocktail party in Florida, telling his friends he feared retaliation from Iran. “At a cocktail party, Trump told several of his Florida friends he was afraid Iran would try to assassinate him, so he had to go back to Washington where he would be safer,” the book says.