Donald Trump, the United States President-elect has appointed a former special air service (SAS) soldier who rescued hostages during the 2019 terror attack at the DusitD2 Hotel complex in Nairobi as his bodyguard. The attack was carried out on January 15, 2019 by Somalia-based al-Shabaab, leaving 21 people dead. The man whose identity has been concealed and goes by his nom-de-guerre, ‘Christian Craighead’ will become part of Trump’s bodyguards operating in the shadows.
The incoming president reportedly assured aides that Mr Craighead would have seen the rooftop shooter who tried to kill him in Pennsylvania in July. The former SAS soldier will be part of the security force for Mr Trump’s inauguration in Washington DC on 20 January. Mr Craighead will be conducting reconnaissance at locations where the president-elect is due to appear in public. At the time if the attack, Mr Craighead was in Kenya training local forces. He had no idea that terrorists were preparing an attack. “When I went to Dusit-D2 in 2019, when Al-Shabaab militants stormed in, I was well prepared. My childhood life had prepared me for that moment,” said Mr Craighead in an interview with Shwan Ryan Show last year.
The SAS hero said it was not a right man at the right place scenario, and that the reality is he “had to be there on that day when the attack took place.” Mr Craighead joined the Parachute Regiment while he was a teenager and was selected for the Pathfinder Platoon. Skills gained during his youth training helped him during the 2019 attack making him an asset to the Trump security team. In service days, he worked on several deployments which included Iraq and Afghanistan.