Despite his earlier advice to Mr. Obama not to act, Mr. Trump now says his predecessor missed
an opportunity to solve the Syria conflict by failing to enforce his “red line in the sand.”
“When he didn’t cross that line after making the threat,” Mr. Trump said, “I think
that set us back a long ways, not only in Syria, but in many other parts of the world, because it was a blank threat.”
Mr. Trump was similarly withering about Mr. Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.
Only days after the White House declared it would be “silly” to persist in trying to oust President Bashar
al-Assad of Syria, Mr. Trump said, “My attitude toward Syria and Assad has changed very much.”
“It crossed a lot of lines for me,” the president declared at a news conference in the Rose Garden, referring to the “red line”
that his predecessor, President Barack Obama, had drawn before a 2013 poison-gas attack by Mr. Assad’s forces.
WASHINGTON — President Trump warned on Wednesday that he would not tolerate the “heinous” chemical weapons attack in Syria, opening the door to a greater American role in protecting the population in a vicious civil war
that he has always said the United States should avoid.
Trump’s View of Syria and Assad Altered After ‘Unacceptable’ Chemical Attack -
By MARK LANDLER, DAVID E. SANGER and MICHAEL D. SHEARAPRIL 5, 2017
President Trump spoke about the recent chemical attack in Syria during a news conference with King Abdullah of Jordan on Wednesday.
