Harrisburg, Pa. — President Trump’s decision to strike Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime might deserve the prize for the least-expected, but most popular decision he has made in the first 100 days.
“I’m happy that he did it,” said Lana Fellows of Mechanicsburg, Pa.
Fellows, a volunteer at the rally who said she backed Trump from the moment he declared his candidacy, recognized that he’d made a major about-face from the foreign policy rhetoric of his campaign. But she, and several other committed Trump supporters, celebrated the move anyway — not because they’d opposed his foreign policy during the campaign, but because his new stances fit with their hope that he would be “a strong leader” compared to former President Barack Obama.
“I do believe he should change his mind for the sake of our country,” Fellows told the Washington Examiner. “They want to keep trying to take over and make us look like a fool, like they did for the last eight years with Obama.”
The decision to strike Assad was the very first thing that came to Beverly Fleming’s mind when the Bethlehem, Pa., resident was asked what she liked best about Trump’s nascent presidency. “Going in there — I hate to say — guns blazing,” she said. “I trust him. He seems like such strong man. I really trust him.”
Crystal Hunt, who served as a Chinese linguist in the Army during the George H.W. Bush presidency, praised Trump’s “peace through strength” approach, although she’s admittedly nervous about too much confrontation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is Assad’s most powerful backer. “I kind of like the idea of doing it … but it could have increased our tensions with Russia,” said Hunt. “I just don’t know what Putin and [Russia] are thinking about how dominant a force they want to be around the world. It’s just very touchy.”
Other rally attendees were more effusive. “I think on the world stage, we need to be who we were born to be,” Jim Haddock of Northern Virginia, who served in the Army from 1994-1998, told the Washington Examiner. “In the America I know, we don’t quiver in fear. If there’s a fire, we go after it, we don’t run from it. We go save the people.”
Fellows’ companion concurred, Carla Baum, even though she agreed that he had campaigned on a different foreign policy platform. “I think it had to be done. He had to retaliate. People can’t get away with just murdering people,” added Baum, who was also volunteering at the rally. “I’m not [bothered by the change] because of the way he made his decision was in regards to the children murdered by what was done, so he approached it from that standpoint and I think we have to take a stand. We have to protect the innocent.”
Of course, Trump didn’t order a George W. Bush-style invasion of Syria, which helped the popularity of the strike. “I think it’s a good way to send a message without really committing to hard to anything,” said Eric Williams, a younger voter from Harrisburg who credited Trump with piquing his interest in politics.
