FOREIGN POLICY/MILITARY/SYRIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump embarked Saturday [1-19-19] on an unannounced trip to Dover Air Force Base to meet with the families of four Americans killed in a suicide bombing in Syria last week. The president’s visit on a gray, frigid morning follows renewed skepticism surrounding his administration’s directive last month to withdraw the roughly 2,000 U.S. troops stationed in Syria, and comes just hours before Trump is scheduled to deliver an address on the partial government shutdown that entered its fifth week on Saturday. Speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House, Trump described his upcoming trip to the Delaware base as the most difficult task of a commander in chief…But Trump continued to defend a Middle East foreign policy that has provoked uncertainty among regional leaders in recent weeks and contributed in part to the resignation of his former Defense secretary, James Mattis.”
–Quint Forgey, “Trump visits air base to meet families of Americans killed in Syria,” Politico, January 19, 2019 12:34 pm