In an interview with Fox & Friends Tuesday morning, President Trump claimed he wanted to assassinate Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but was talked out of it by former Secretary of Defense James Mattis.
“I would have rather taken him out. I had him all set. Mattis didn’t want to do it,” Trump said. The president’s comments reflect the reporting from Bob Woodward, whose book “Fear” claimed Trump wanted to assassinate Assad in April 2017 after an alleged chemical attack in Khan Shaykun, Syria.
Instead of the assassination, the US fired 59 cruise missiles at Syrian government targets. A similar incident occurred in April 2018, after an alleged chemical attack in Douma, Syria, and the US, UK, and France launched attacks on multiple Syrian government sites.
After Woodward’s book was published in 2018, President Trump said that the idea “was never even discussed.” The book also described the president’s contentious relationship with Mattis, who Trump called a “highly overrated general” in Tuesday’s interview.
The incident in 2017 was not the last time Trump and Mattis clashed over Syria. Mattis resigned in December 2018. Trump’s plans to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and Syria drove Mattis to step down, although US troops are still in those countries today.
I’m waiting for the MSM to call him weak for NOT taking out Assad. I’m also waiting for Trump’s head to explode from having so much bullshit stored in one place.
wars, He is full of shi# but Biden, demoncrats are worse,,Trump 2020 and I hope he has learned a few lessons…:)
There ya go. Saying Trump is full of shit and then campaigning for him. They suck equally.
Assad is better than ISIS. This is so stupid.
deleted.
Trump has clearly learned from his 4 years. I just hope he hasn’t learned the wrong lessons.
Assad the only man protecting Syrian Christians . And Trump almost assassinated this man . Because of false flag gas attack . This shows it is pretty difficult for a president to make good decisions when he is not in possession of truthful honest information .
Anything daddy bibi wants,daddy bibi gets. The moron in the White House just can’t seem to jump high enough.Too fat on zionist fodder
And when he can’t wait for such information. He did it within a day or two of the false flag attack. He actually did assassinate someone by drone early this year, remember? Along with twenty other innocent people around the man. It’s why Iraq asked you to leave, but you didn’t so actually you’re occupying that nation for the umpteenth time.
Zarhan, live by the sword, die by the sword, Solemani got his, I will not cry for him. Prez. had better watch out about being eager to kill foreign leaders, I would bet many of his own countrymen want the same for him, and almost all DC Ghouls do…………….Trump 2020, even though he is an AZZ Hole, Biden is worse! 🙂
By the way if there is one thing that should never ever be put in one sentence together, it’s Trump and honesty. You have heard how he knowingly lied to your faces about Covid right?
false
trump actually told the truth….in civilized European nations there r no masks, covid facism
chloroquine, etc is successfully employed as a treatment in Asia, S Amerika, Europe
Right, Trump was just “downplaying” the virus as he told Woodward he was doing. Kind of like downplaying the dangers of traffic to your children by telling them to go play in the middle of a busy intersection.
wars, “Come on Man, gimme a break”!! Biden quote.
Trump did all he could to fight the CCP manufactured virus. Go back and hit that bong my friend, u surely do not think for yourself. 🙂
Trump told Woodward he BELIEVED the virus to be deadly and then he held rallies. I wasn’t giving my personal opinion about the virus but you’re too damn dense to figure that out.
wars,,It is deadly, to old people in bad health, just as is the flu!! Trump rallies bad,,demoncrat,,protest” and violent hateful riots, good,,,I know your agenda wars, and it is a deadly one.
You sound like you’re on Fox and Friends. Let me try to explain it to you. When Trump was calling the virus a hoax or was recommending unproven drugs or was encouraging people to attend HIS rallies we probably all assumed that was because Trump thought the virus was indeed a hoax. And a lot of people, including myself, didn’t disagree with him. He could have been an adult and a calming influence but he’s too much of an a$$hole to do that but nothing he did or said could be construed as criminal. So on Feb. 7th when he told Woodward the virus was DEADLY that changed everything. And the fact that Trump couldn’t scream “FAKE NEWS” because he had been recorded as saying such leads one to believe that Trump, himself, must have actually believed it to be so. And when he said he was downplaying the virus to avoid a panic that is pretty much proof that he indeed thought it was DEADLY. So the context of him calling it a hoax or inviting HIS own supporters to gather is completely different if he had thought it was just a hoax. But you go ahead and use Fox and Friends talking points to make your case because it fits your narrative.
wars,,,It is clear he wanted to calm the situation and not cause a panic,,just like any leader in that position should do,,Prez, putz his foot up his azz often, but still far better than PEDO, SENILE, LYING, CORRUPT, PLAGERIZING,,Hidin-Biden.. Trump 2020! HoRaHH..
Hmmm … how many 13-year-olds has Biden been sued for raping?
Thomas, what are you implying??? Biden is accused by one of his staff of going into her panties and digital penetrating her. For all the other PEDO incidents,,just watch him on Y-Tube!! “Come on man,gimmee a break” Biden quote. 🙂 I know Prez. like’s mature Women, likes sex, much like JFK in that way,,and also like billions of men around the world, and it may come as a shock to you,,but Women like it too..:)
Jay, I’m not implying anything. Trump was sued for allegedly fucking a 13-year-old delivered to him by Jeffrey Epstein. That’s just a fact.
If Trump likes mature women so much, why does he always marry them young then discard them for new young models when they start aging?
The leading candidate for president is a creepy, handsy, corrupt, senile septuagenarian. I don’t even have to check whether Trump or Biden is ahead in the polls to know that, because in those specific respects they’re like peas in a pod.
On March 16th, when the US had only 251 Covid deaths, Trump touted hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and zinc as a preventative.
If ***rather than Trump*** a respected medical authority had recommended HCQ + zinc as a preventive …
— per Trump so early on, and which has now been established —
… half of the current 200,000 US deaths could have been prevented (and god knows how many more going forward). But no such luck, as TDS insanity ruled the day. So half the final tally of dead Americans must be chalked up to Trump-hate and Trump-haters. A bitter pill which they will deny all the way to their graves.
Interesting times.
There is a significant difference between Trump saying he thought that the virus was a hoax and encouraging people to gather at his rallies because that is what he believed as compared to him believing it was indeed deadly and still saying it was a hoax and still encouraging people to gather at his rallies. I really wasn’t trying to make any other point.
The virus was made either in Ft. Detrick or Israel and deployed by order of Pompeo or the Mossad. Blaming China is just part of the plan, cementing in the mind of the readily gulled, the notion of Chinese responsibility, preempting the truth. Later, after a full analysis of the genome of the virus reveals its man-made origin, no one will take note of the false attribution, and the anti-China meme will endure.
Mission accomplished. (Almost. The horrific consequences inflicted on the American people by its own Deep State, or Israel, will remain as a festering and deeply toxic “conspiracy theory”. In any event, China beat back the attack and the empire is dying, so no one will have time to fret much over a bunch of dead Boomers.)
Tucker Carlson had a Deep State, “Democracy for Hong Kong!” shill on last night, amplifying the “China did it!” meme. The psyop continues.
Yomama,,You should show more respect to your Mother :(. Do you really believe what you just wrote…I mean REALLY, WTF! LOL. 🙂
Decide for yourself:
This is short and to the point.
Was Coronavirus a Biowarfare Attack Against China?
OLDMICROBIOLOGIST • MARCH 13, 2020
https://www.unz.com/article/was-the-2020-wuhan-coronavirus-an-engineered-biological-attack-on-china-by-america-for-geopolitical-advantage/
This, too.
American Pravda: Our Coronavirus Catastrophe as Biowarfare Blowback?
RON UNZ • APRIL 21, 2020
https://www.unz.com/article/was-coronavirus-a-biowarfare-attack-against-china/
This is a very long article, so do a “ctrl f” search for “Back in January”. The first hit begins the relevant material.
No, COVID is actually a scam. Germany seems to be waking up to this faster actually, we have lots of rallies against the masks etc.
If you research the “COVID deaths” in the US (as well as the purported infections), I’m pretty sure you will find the same misreporting as around here. Here they sell us every positive PCR test result as an infection.
Not my point.
Your point is stupid. Drop the Covid.
You’re stupid. It isn’t about the covid. It’s about admitting to recklessly endangering people.
Nothing like that happened. Nothing good comes from panic, and there have been past pandemic scares that amounted to nothing. Even this one is turning out less deadly than once feared.
Covid is just something people focus on when wanting to avoid condemning Trump on real issues.
Nothing like that happened? So Trump didn’t invite people to attend his rallies after he told Woodward the virus was deadly and you could catch it by just breathing in the air? Look at the dates between Feb.7th and March 10th and tell me Trump didn’t hold any rallies during that period. I wasn’t focusing on Trumps response until the Woodward interview came out. And the interview didn’t mean that much until Trump didn’t deny it and came back with the lame excuse of “playing it down”. You don’t play something down by willingly inviting people to gather around the very thing you just said was deadly and could be passed through the air. And I do agree that there are people who focus their condemning of Trump because of the virus but I’m not one of them. There is a plethora of things to condemn him for and I try to touch them all. I’ll do the same, by the way, if the other senile moron gets elected.
It’s a scam? Is the whole world in on the scam too?
I think the overreaction brought on the scams. The next billionaire has got to be a mask maker.
Can’t disagree with you there. Lots of people getting rich on this.
It’s not the whole world though. That’s the thing. Sweden and Ireland have made some comments. Denmark’s results are also mild.
Why is it people use that “whole world” thing to refer to so many issues the “whole world” isn’t behind? It reminds me of Communists declaring they are “the will of the people” when they are not.
The virus was here probably in November. It might have been unusually deadly at first. It does seem very contagious. But many measure to reduce the spread don’t seem to have helped. Some, perhaps, have been helpful, like reducing travel.
Look at the numbers reported by each country. You are claiming they are phony are you not?
Which numbers? Some numbers might be questionable, sure. But compare it to a typical flu.
Worldometers
Consider the comparison of Sweden vs. England that everyone’s talking about:
“The researchers used the effect of lockdown in England on daily cases
and the rate of new cases and deaths in the first 100 days of lockdown,
relative to Sweden. They found that the incidence of cases in England
over 30 days was over 20,000 cases per 10 million people, vs. 15,000 in
Sweden. Thus, England had a relative case incidence of 1.32.
In England, the incidence rate was approximately 3,400 deaths per 10
million people, vs. 2,400 in Sweden. Thus, the relative death incidence
was 1.42. The case fatality in England and Sweden was 17% and 16%
respectively.”
And more recently at least, the death rate is much lower.
I don’t know what statistics are true, but the most dangerous place seems to be nursing homes and, in the US, migrant worker homes. Syria and Yemen are probably very badly hit, due to extreme poverty. I’m unfamiliar with Africa, but I’ve read SA, which is relatively rich, has poor nutritional standards for its poor. So, I expect it also suffered.
Shutting down businesses and making people wear masks doesn’t seem to have helped, but maybe it did.
Compare deaths in Sweden 5,800 so far to mask wearing Greece both around 10M in population. Greece has around 300 deaths or nearby Norway half the population of Sweden with 200 deaths.Norway locked down.
Greece has an older population, so youd expect it vulnerable. But lockdowns only perhaps slow the spread, not stop it. And again, there seems to be a disparity of results.
Dr Martin Feeley made news in Ireland recently commenting on the deaths and harm from lockdowns. He argued the current death rates of the infected are low. So, the virus might now be less deadly, or it might have already killed most of the most vulnerable.
Anyway, I’ve never avoided an illness and rarely get sick. So, while I want to save lives if that’s truly possible, I also havent feared the illness for myself. I did learn one thing, vaccines in Africa for other diseases have supposedly created outbreaks. I had no idea that vaccines could actually be dangerous. I had thought that superstition only.
It is just obvious wearing masks as in ….Greece is more effective vs. Covid than not wearing masks as in Sweden.
I’m in a hurry. The link I just cited is here: https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200817/COVID-19-Englands-lockdown-vs-Swedens-herd-immunity.aspx
Zarhan, you are mistaken, he did all he could, including shutting the economy down, etc.,,he just has dysentery of the mouth much too often. 🙂
Or a moral compass.
Good point…but he surrounds himself with neo cons.
In 2015 and 6 he was wanting to protect MidEast Christians. I guess that’s out now. “Christian Zionists” don’t care about Christians.
the fascist democrats admired trump when US send missiles to sand dunes and declared “victory”,,,backward immoral people
trump isn’t fascist, racist enough—the only president that has not attacked another nation since WWII
I think you’re getting “starting no new wars” mixed up with “not attacked another nation since WW2”. I think he dropped a few bombs on Afghanistan to name one. And the MOAB at that.
wars,,backer of the sweet Taliban,,why am I not surprised? 🙂
You are an idiot Jay if that is what you took from my comment.
wars, wanna walk it back…?,,,edit your post?,,,plain as day what you meant!
Really? The guy said Trump never attacked another nation and I pointed out he attacked Afghanistan and somehow that makes me a Taliban sympathizer? I guess I’ll have to stand by my comment. You are an idiot.
Wars,,what is with the hate for me??,,I still love Ya Bro’. 🙂
I can’t fathom the connection to the Taliban. I guess I should have said the missile attacks on Syria. And I call my real life brother an idiot too so don’t be offended. I wave at people by giving them the finger. I’m an asshole.
wars, I know you are a good Bro’, 🙂 When the chips are down, I got your back!
Trump bombing Afghanistan was horrible. The objective seemed to be to test weapons, not to achieve… anything.
Just who does the US want in power in Syria and Afghanistan? What about Iraq? There’s no policy objective, just senseless killing. The US seems to want to take on everyone in these regions, hoping some impossible “good” alternative inexplicably arises.
You hate Pashtuns, then? What good comes from dropping bombs there? If the end goal is to get out, why not leave now? If wanting regime change, was anything positive achieved by dropping that bomb? And if changing, just who is better than the Taliban?
Why would it be so terrible if the Taliban, and Pakistan, returned to power? Iran wouldn’t be happy, and Trump seems to hate Iran.
US foreign policy doesn’t make sense. That’s the issue. Not only should the US not be there, but there’s no coherent objective.
He’s continued many conflicts, drone warfare, sanctions. Trump is better than Biden, Clinton, Obama, Bush.
Trump is the SAME as Biden, Clinton, Obama and Bush. You gave the reason why and then you backtracked from that reason.
I would like to see Trump better demonstrate how he’s an improvement over Biden. Ending trade sanctions would be a nice start.
Recently it was declared that China would never be able to catch up with the US navy. I don’t care if China catches up. These people are crazy. I keep asking: How is this any different from how the Soviet Union under Trotsky might have behaved?
And the loons on the “right” who think they want empire often don’t understand what they’re saying.
Me too. But unfortunately, it just isn’t going to happen. He constantly throws things out there that people can really get behind and a day later it is gone from memory. Like when he blurted out about pardoning Snowden. I immediately said I’d vote for him if he did it. Poof! Gone. Just a ploy, I’m sure, to stir sh*t up with the democrats. I didn’t like him from the start. He condoned torture and wanted to fill up GITMO. Luckily, for him not us, there was another human being on the planet just as vile as him. And today we are in the same nightmare scenario. I don’t even want to wake up(not literally)on Nov. 4th.
Wasn’t only one candidate worse than Trump on foreign policy. Every… single… mainstream candidate.
The reason torture didn’t matter is: 1. It’s bad PR for the Empire 2. The US already tortures and also outsources torture. 3. If the US really exits from its stupid wars, then there’s no one to torture. Then the matter becomes academic.
There are a variety of reasons Trump is better than alternatives. I had just hoped for more. It’s quite easy to just exit NATO, exit Korea, exit Japan, exit the Middle East. Trump has, intentionally or unintentionally, moved the US away from empire – just like how Britain is losing its residual empire after Brexit. You or others here can complain about the appearance of things, but SK is less inclined to the US now than in 2016. NATO also, etc. That’s a very good thing.
As Raimondo rightly stated: A sane empire would at least turn a profit. Keeping around costly businesses is foolish. And Raimondo did basically say that: “Everything goes out, nothing comes in.” The US citizenry has to pay for it all.
Trumps foreign policy included dropping out of the JCPOA, bombing the sh*t out of ISIS and of course he hammered home how Obama had depleted our military so he promised to build that up. His professed undying loyalty to Israel almost assured us of a continued aggressive presence in the ME with more weapons being sold to everyone. Him embracing the Saudis as an ally after he bashed them during his candidacy also assured the enmity towards Iran and proved very early on that his campaign was filled with bullsh*t. Condoning torture and filling up GITMO are an indicator of the man’s principles and can’t be cast aside as if they are meaningless. The only way to come away from Trump’s campaign as him being a man of peace and liberty was to do some serious cherry picking on EVERTYTHING he said. Trump is/was as bad as the alternatives unless of course you vote third party. Jill Stein was a better alternative but she didn’t have an R or a D next to her name.
OK, which D/R candidates were against bombing ISIS or disloyal to Israel? I’ve always believed the regional foreign policy is primarily driven by Israeli interests.
What was interesting about attacking ISIS (and al Qaeda) is that they’ve essentially been an ally of Israel (and the usual Sunni Arab states) in their war in Syria. Also, Turkey, though Turkey is also seemingly an enemy of Israel, the Kurds being used against Turkey.
It’s complicated, and Trump wasn’t continuing the game in as destructive a way. Hillary likely would have either attacked Assad or better funded ISIS/al Qaeda and the Kurds.
Trump has turned out less wonderful than hoped, but he continues to question foreign policy. Things like the idiocy in Venezuela I assume would have been worse under Hillary, though why the US hates a “Marxist” is confusing. Presumably the “Marxists” in South America aren’t globalist poodles, as confounding as that seems.
“It’s complicated, and Trump wasn’t continuing the game in as destructive a way.”
OK, I’ll bite. What’s less “destructive” about septupling the number of troops in Syria and firing more artillery shells than were fired in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, before drawing back down to approximately January 2017 troop levels and pretending that’s “withdrawing?”
Trump DID attack Syria. Twice. And he wanted to take out Assad. Hillary wanted a no fly zone but so did McCain and it didn’t happen. I don’t think she would have pulled out of the JCPOA but she hates Iran as does Schumer. Either way then, or now, it’s depressing to think ahead.
America First Don, not Israel.
So Donald, do you really want to legitimize assassinating leaders of countries that you don’t like? As a president would think you would not favor setting that precedent. Syria was peaceful country for decades until some guy named Yinon decided Syria was to be part of “Greater Israel”.
arn,,Obama, McCain, hillary, and the neo-cons, including linsay Boi’ wanted to outright invade Syria,,,Prez. T. never did, wanted out.
I know, however, no American president should say what he said. They wanted the Libya treatment in Syria. Russia said no way and ISIS was born. It was hilarious when Obama pretended to fight ISIS and Russia volunteered to help and heroically wiped them out including “moderate” ISIS.
I recognize that there have been no new wars under Trump. Not even wars with proxy terrorist armies. He has tried to withdraw from the CIA’s golden goose heroine business in Afghanistan but wasn’t able to. Maybe he could if he were really in charge. I am in favor of putting him “really in charge” but I wish he didn’t talk like Lucky Luciano.
Other than two missile attacks based on nonsense. Wanted to assassinate Assad and didn’t want to give the Russians a heads up before the missile attack.
“Some American military and intelligence officials were especially distressed by the president’s determination to ignore the evidence. “None of this makes any sense,” one officer told colleagues upon learning of the decision to bomb. “We KNOW that there was no chemical attack … the Russians are furious. Claiming we have the real intel and know the truth … I guess it didn’t matter whether we elected Clinton or Trump.“
https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article165905578/Trump-s-Red-Line.html
wars, That was a very stupid move but he was enthralled by the corrupt and egg sucking Generals,,I hope he has learned that they are all GHOULS!
But read that article. Those ass kissing generals had to talk him down on that one.
The point of my original post.
The only secular leader in the region… And the US wants to take him out. Just great.
Assad has a Christian general, relies on minorities, and the alternative is literally ISIS.
Trump still has sanctions on Syria, is still holding the oil. Assad is being squeezed.
If he want to assassinate the leaders of other countries, then he wouldn’t mind being assassinated himself…!
Special rules apply to The Empire though.
Ritter nails it:
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/500882-military-messiah-syndrome-trump-woodward-rage/
Woodward is a fraud, most if not all top military are war mongering frauds!
War/mic pays very well; someone should do a piece on the obscene net worth retired military are gathering while feeding at the trough, revolving door does not quite get it.