President Trump has had a chance to drop the hammer lately so to speak, and I’ve got something to say about that.
Following a chemical attack by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad on his own people, Trump chose to follow up with 59 Tomahawk missiles at one of Assad's airfields and the surrounding infrastructure. Sounds like the most clear-cut thing to happen in about three months of Donald Trump’s alleged presidency, right?
Maybe. It might have even been the right move for him considering what he said about Obama’s failure to do the same, when Obama elected to make a deal for the removal of chemical weapons with Syria and Russia, a deal that pretty clearly backfired. With Trump, however, his motives behind this and his use of the MOAB in Afghanistan remain murky.
The given reason for his retaliation appears to be that he was moved by the images of human suffering coming out of the attack. I understand that and might have accepted it if it weren’t for the entirety of his crass political campaign. He spent the whole campaign painting the refugees from Syria and Iraq as terrorist sleeper agents, in spite of the images coming out of Aleppo at the time.
One interpretation is that Trump, now with the onus of responsibility and not running a political campaign, had a change of heart. I’ve got less difficulty believing that this isn't a political move.
As you may well know, Trump and his party have had a rough time of governing. The Freedom Caucus and the town hall protests that sunk the Obamacare replacement exposed the divisions within the Republican Party, and Trump's promised tax reforms have so far promised to be more of the same. Neil Gorsuch's nomination barely helped due to the finagling and hypocrisy required to get him there.
With all of that, Trump might have seen this as a chance to turn the fortunes of his image, especially given that his image and his fortune are inextricably linked. Attack Syria, a known Russia ally, and get the mob off his back, and gain press as a stronger leader than Obama.
But this time, we didn’t enter into a “Presidential Trump” phase, where the press collectively praises his performance, because the bar had been idly tossed onto the floor ages ago.
These would last all the way up to his very next scandal, like how his State of The Union address, wherein he used the death of a Navy SEAL to skillfully escape taking responsibility for ordering the raid that led to his death, caused the press to declare him “President Trump” for a couple days. Then the James Comey testimony happened, discrediting Trump's claim that Obama ordered an illegal wiretap of Trump Tower.
I think this time, the press knew how fleeting this behavior would have been as the story over North Korea became the big story, where China visibly treated Trump and Kim Jong-Un as equally unreliable. The law of diminishing returns also kicks in, because, with any luck, he’ll be in prison by summer’s end. The Russia scandal didn’t exactly go away, now, did it?
Logan Graham is a junior studying media arts with a focus in games and animation at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. What do you think of Trump's attack on Syria? Let him know by emailing him at lg261813@ohio.edu.
