For the president, Friday night’s targeted strike against the Syrian government was a “mission accomplished.” That’s what Donald Trump tweeted Saturday morning after the strike, in which the United States was joined by Britain and France. “A perfectly executed strike last night,” Trump said. “Could not have had a better result.”
The strike hit what Defense Secretary James Mattis referred to as “chemical weapons infrastructure,” and the White House set out on Sunday to reaffirm that this narrow mission had, in fact, been accomplished. “They went out to destroy critical chemical weapons infrastructure in Syria and they did exactly that,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told ABC News. “And they also sent a strong message to Syria, to Russia, to Iran that when this president has a red line, he will enforce it.”
But what is next for the United States with regard to Syria and the regime of Bashar al-Assad? United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley told CBS Sunday said the administration is “not looking for war” but that “we wanted to send a strong message that they needed to stop the chemical weapons program.” To that end, Haley said, the Treasury Department will be announcing new sanctions against Russia, an important ally of Syria. “They will go directly to any sort of companies that were dealing with equipment related to Assad and chemical weapons use,” she said.
But President Trump’s initial response—mission accomplished—suggests that, barring another major incident in Syria, there will no more military action against Assad in the near future.
One More Thing—After his Saturday morning tweet, the president has spoken out publicly only one additional time about Syria. In between tweets on Saturday and Sunday blasting James Comey, criticizing the FBI raid on his lawyer Michael Cohen, and praising a good poll number, Trump commented on the media scrutiny of his “mission accomplished” tweet.
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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2018
While the Trump administration may be preparing more Russian sanctions on top of the several other individuals and entities who have been targeted by the United States in recent weeks, the president himself has been lashing out about some of his government’s actions against Russia. That’s according to an incredible Washington Post story about how has “battled aides” on Russia recently—and lost.
In March, Trump’s aides presented him with a plan to expel Russian diplomats from the United States in response to Moscow’s apparent involvement in the poisoning of a former spy in London. According to the Post, Trump wanted the number of diplomats to match what European allies planned to do.
“The next day, when the expulsions were announced publicly, Trump erupted, officials said. To his shock and dismay, France and Germany were each expelling only four Russian officials — far fewer than the 60 his administration had decided on,” reads the Post story. “The president, who seemed to believe that other individual countries would largely equal the United States, was furious that his administration was being portrayed in the media as taking by far the toughest stance on Russia.”
Photo of the Day
Last night the President put our adversaries on notice: when he draws a red line he enforces it. (Inside the Situation Room as President is briefed on Syria – Official WH photos by Shealah Craighead) pic.twitter.com/GzOSejdqQh
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) April 15, 2018
Never Mind—Jon Lerner, a deputy to Nikki Haley at the United Nations, will no longer join Vice President Mike Pence’s staff as national security adviser. “Tonight Jon informed the vice president that he was withdrawing from coming on board as national security advisor,” said Pence spokeswoman Alyssa Farah on Sunday. “Vice President Pence holds Jon Lerner in the highest regard and expressed his deep gratitude for Jon’s willingness to consider joining our team.”
Lerner had planned on continuing to work for Haley in addition to his work at the White House. He will stay with Haley despite his withdrawal from the Pence position. Josh Rogin at the Washington Post had first reported of the Lerner hire, but on Sunday afternoon, Jonathan Swan of Axios reported Trump had tried to block Lerner’s appointment late last week after learning of the Republican operative’s work during the 2016 primary campaign on ads against Trump
A White House source tells me the vice president’s office tries to avoid “drama” and that Lerner will continue to advise Pence on national security matters in an informal way. Lerner is close professionally with Pence’s chief of staff, Nick Ayers. Both Ayers and Lerner also worked on Haley’s 2010 campaign for governor in South Carolina.
Trey Gowdy, the retiring Republican congressman from South Carolina, defended on Sunday New York prosecutors’ decision to raid the home and office of President Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen, noting that the warrant was signed by “a neutral, detached federal judge that has nothing to do with politics.” Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, also pushed back against Republican critiques that special counsel Robert Mueller had acted improperly by referring information about Cohen to the Southern District of New York attorney’s office.
“I don’t know what Mueller was supposed to do other than what he did,” Gowdy said. “When a prosecutor comes in contact with information or evidence of a crime, what are you supposed to do other than to refer it to the appropriate jurisdiction?”
The April 9 raid on Cohen’s office provoked a torrent of grievances from the president and his congressional allies, with Trump calling it an “attack on our country” and “an attack on what we all stand for.” Republican members of Congress, such as Senator Rand Paul to House member Matthew Gaetz, have insisted the raid provides further evidence the Mueller probe should be ended. Gowdy’s remarks make him the first high-profile GOP lawmaker to explicitly push back on that narrative.
“If Mueller had kept something tangential or unrelated for himself, then I’d say, fine, you can criticize him,” Gowdy said. “But he came in contact with potential criminality. He referred it to the U.S. attorney’s office of jurisdiction. And he did so with the permission of Rod Rosenstein. . . . How this is Mueller’s fault just defies logic to me.”
Must-Read of the Day—Be sure to carve out a few minutes to read Andrew Ferguson’s latest for the magazine, on the revival of (or rebuttal to?) the groundbreaking BBC docuseries Civilisation. Here’s an excerpt:
In case you missed ABC’s big exclusive interview with former FBI director James Comey, read the transcript here. Comey’s book, A Higher Loyalty, comes out on Tuesday.
Song of the Day—“Time (The Revelator)” by Gillian Welch
