White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said President Trump isn’t shying away from the term “Mission Accomplished” because Friday’s strike in Syria lived up to the spirit of the phrase.
Sanders said on ABC’s “This Week” Trump isn’t scared of using the phrase made infamous by President George W. Bush’s speech aboard an aircraft carrier in 2003. That speech became one of the all-time great political gaffes after the war continued for years following Bush’s speech.
Sanders said Trump felt he should use the phrase because Friday’s strike on Syria’s chemical weapons production facilities was successful.
“Certainly the mission that the U.S. Military and our coalition forces with the UK and France went out on Friday to do, they 100 percent met their objectives,” Sanders said.
“That’s what the president’s referring to. They went out to destroy critical chemical weapons infrastructure in Syria. They did that. They sent a strong message to Syria, to Russia, to Iran, that when this president has a red line, he’ll enforce it.”
Trump caught some guff from the political world after a tweet celebrating the strike on Saturday declaring “Mission Accomplished!”
He defended his use of the phrase Sunday, saying it was not a gaffe but a purposeful decision.
“The Syrian raid was so perfectly carried out, with such precision, that the only way the Fake News Media could demean was by my use of the term ‘Mission Accomplished.’ I knew they would seize on this but felt it is such a great Military term, it should be brought back. Use often!” Trump tweeted.
