FOREIGN POLICY/NATO/SYRIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump, at a news conference with the head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, described Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as ‘a butcher’ as a result of the chemical attack the US government has accused him of carrying out on his own civilians.
‘That’s a butcher. That’s a butcher,’ Trump said of Assad. ‘So I felt we had to do something about it.’
The stark language is the most blunt terms Trump has used to describe the Syrian president, who is accused of war crimes in an attempt to hold onto power during a prolonged civil war. In the past, Trump has called Assad ‘evil’ and ‘an animal.’
Speaking of the missile strikes he authorized against the base that carried out the chemical attack, Trump later added: ‘I have absolutely no doubt we did the right thing.’
Trump’s top aides said earlier this month that the President was moved by the photos and video of children suffering from the effects of the chemical attack and that those pictures, in a way, compelled him to take action against the Syrian president.
On Wednesday [4-12-17], standing with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Trump echoed that sentiment.”
-Dan Merica and Richard Roth, “Trump on Assad: ‘That’s a butcher’,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, April 12, 2017 11:45pm