Shortly after laughing with Xi in the ornate, candle-lit dining room of his Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump made a televised address in front of a hastily assembled backdrop to say he had ordered a surprise strike on a Syrian airfield.
It was Trump’s most presidential moment so far, the first time he had marshaled the might of the U.S. government instead of looking like an insurgent trying to dismantle it from within. In the hours leading up to the strike, Trump had to depend on the expertise of the intelligence community and military apparatus that he and his aides belittled throughout the campaign and since. Less than three days after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad prompted the U.S. strike by attacking an insurgent-held town with sarin gas, Trump’s relationship with the world was altered, according to Bloomberg.
After evaluating Assad’s attack and other recent provocations, Trump “came to the conclusion that we could not yet again turn away and turn a blind eye to what’s happened,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters Thursday evening.
Mar-a-Lago Order
Thursday morning, as the president prepared to leave for Florida for a meeting with Xi, the White House began notifying some members of Congress that it was considering military action against Syria.
Trump convened his national security team at about 1:30 p.m. New York time while aboard Air Force One, White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters on Friday.
Trump arrived at Mar-a-Lago at about 3:15 p.m. New York time. Shortly thereafter, three groups of military and national security officials were gathered and linked via video conference to discuss military options against Syria.
In the secure room at the president’s resort, the group included Tillerson, Defense Secretary James Mattis and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, as well as National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, who were all traveling with the president for the Xi visit. Back in Washington, Vice President Mike Pence was in the White House situation room, along with Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Deputy CIA Director Gina Haspel. A third group of defense officials gathered at the Pentagon.
Mattis, Tillerson, and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who joined from New York, laid out the options for Trump, said a person included in the meeting. Trump issued the order to execute the cruise-missile strike at 3:45 p.m. New York time, the person said.
Xi Arrives
About 90 minutes later, the Chinese president and his wife pulled into Mar-a-Lago, where they were greeted by Trump and the First Lady. The foursome posed for photos before several hours of meetings.
That evening about 7 p.m., inside a private dining room, the two world leaders dined on New York strip and Dover sole with several dozen Chinese and top White House officials, including Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner. The club remained open to members and their guests, who dined separately and could catch glimpses of Trump as he walked through the dining area.
As their dinner concluded, Trump informed Xi personally that he had ordered the strike, Spicer said. The Tomahawk missiles were launched at about 7:40 p.m. and were minutes away from their targets as the Chinese motorcade prepared to depart the club, he said. The first missiles struck at about 8:40 p.m.
"All 59 hit their target," Spicer said, contradicting the Russian government’s claim that 36 of the missiles missed, according to Interfax. At about 8:30 p.m., the Trump administration began informing members of Congress and foreign governments. Pence participated in those calls, a U.S. official said.
Trump and more than a dozen of his aides crowded into a small, plain room at Mar-a-Lago after dinner, where they sat on wedding-reception chairs for a video conference on the Syria strike, according to a photo released by the White House.
WH photo (ed for security): @potus receives briefing on #syria military strike fr Nat Security team, inc @vp , SECDEF, CJCS via secure VTC pic.twitter.com/aaCnR7xomR
— Sean Spicer (@PressSec) April 7, 2017
Bannon’s Removal
The decision to launch the strike came shortly after Trump reorganized his national security team, led by the removal of chief strategist Steve Bannon from the National Security Council’s top committee. Bannon’s departure, coupled with the restoration of top intelligence and defense officials to the panel, was seen as a sign of growing influence for McMaster. He, Mattis and Tillerson all advised Trump closely as he decided how to respond to Assad’s use of chemical weapons.
The strike in Syria suggests Trump may embrace a more interventionist foreign policy than Bannon and his allies have advocated. Trump himself had warned against a military intervention before becoming president. “Syria is NOT our problem,” he tweeted in 2013. But in a news conference on Wednesday, he said his approach to Assad had shifted after he saw pictures of children dying from the sarin attack.
“No child of God should ever suffer such horror,” Trump told reporters after his strike.
Bannon’s allies downplayed the significance of his removal, saying he was only on the NSC panel as a check on Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn.
Three Options
Following the chemical attack in Syria on Tuesday, the president asked his advisers to collect more information about the circumstances and to determine who was responsible, McMaster said. The White House then convened the National Security Council’s principals committee -- the group from which Bannon was removed -- to deliberate options. There were three options discussed, and Trump asked his advisers to explore two of them, McMaster said.
He didn’t describe any of the options considered. Spicer also declined to describe other options Trump considered. “That would telegraph potential future action, and a lot of that remains classified,” he said.
Ascertaining Assad’s culpability required Trump and his advisers to lean on an intelligence community he has periodically demonized. The U.S. military said that it was able to observe Syrian planes leave the Shayrat airfield, drop munitions on the town in Idlib province, and return to the base. Tillerson said there was little doubt of the findings.
“We have a very high level of confidence that the attacks were carried out under aircraft under the direction of Bashar al-Assad’s regime” he told reporters. “We have very high confidence that the attacks involved the use of sarin nerve gas.”
Widely Praised
Trump and Xi are to continue their meetings today and conclude the summit with a working lunch.
The strike has been widely praised by members of Congress and other world leaders, many of whom are now eager to see if Trump’s first real act as commander-in-chief signals a shift in a president long criticized as susceptible to instigation by a tweet.
“He now has an opportunity to reboot with the American people,” Senator John McCain said, “at least as far as national security is concerned.”