Trump team sends mixed signals
Advisers seemingly at odds on Syria on Sunday shows
President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Syria with cruise missiles after its use of chemical weapons signals a fundamental shift in the “America First” doctrine he espoused during last year’s campaign. Unless it doesn’t.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley offered different responses to that question Sunday, reflecting a lack of clarity about whether Trump is pivoting to a more expansive view of the U.S. role of the world, or simply responding in one particular case to heart-wrenching photos of “beautiful babies” dying.
“One strike does not a strategy make,” former CIA director David Petraeus cautioned on CNN.
The stakes ahead aren’t limited to Syria. The potential repercussions extend to how tough a line Trump might take toward North Korea and whether he’ll pursue warmer relations with Russia.
During the campaign, Trump promised to focus on defeating ISIS terrorists but to withdraw from much of the broad U.S. engagement in the world that has emerged since World War II. He had urged then-President Barack Obama specifically to stay out of Syria, arguing that its civil war shouldn’t become America’s problem.
But in remarks late Thursday from his Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida, Trump said he ordered Tomahawk missiles launched at a Syrian airfield because it was in the “vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.”
So does the administration now seek the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad?
Haley said yes. “There’s not any sort of option where a political solution is going to happen with Assad at the head of the regime,” she said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Tillerson said no. “I think the president was very clear in his message to the American people that this strike was related solely to the most recent horrific use of chemical weapons against women, children, and as the president said, even small babies,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.” “Other than that, there is no change to our military posture.”
The Syrian attack comes amid increasing activity on foreign policy. Over the past week, Trump met at the White House with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, and in Florida with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Tillerson is scheduled to travel to Moscow this week.