President Donald Trump has come out publicly saying that he decided to call off the Iran strike at the last minute because he was informed (after asking) that the body count would be too high.

He claims that he didn't want to respond to Iran shooting down an unmanned military drone by authorizing strikes that would kill 150 or so Iranians. That wouldn't have been a measured response, he says.

But - according to a senior administration official - that's not the truth at all. In reality, Trump approved the preparation for the Iran strike earlier in the day knowing that the possible death toll would entail a high body count.

“Yes, he was briefed on it earlier in the day,” the official told the Washington Post.

“The military has a standard in which the president is briefed on a potential strike—the battle damage assessment is included in that,” added a former national security official involved in past briefings. “It’s always part of the package. And that includes possible military and civilian casualties.”

Still - that didn't stop Trump from boasting on Twitter and in his exclusive interview with MSNBC's Chuck Todd that he made the decision at the last second.

“I thought about it for a second and I said, you know what, they shot down an unmanned drone, plane, whatever you want to call it, and here we are sitting with a 150 dead people that would have taken place probably within a half an hour after I said go ahead," Trump said. "And I didn’t like it…I didn’t think it was proportionate."

Why Trump would lie about something like this is really unknown, but either he was trying to make himself look good or scare the living hell out of Iran. Still - it's a lie.