Hours after suggesting that "something should happen" in Syria, because "[Assad is] there, and I guess he's running things," President Donald Trump ordered a missile strike against a Syrian government military base from whence Tuesday's chemical weapons attack against Syrian civilians allegedly originated.
Donald Trump is a real president now.
"The Trump administration can truly be said to have started only now," Elliot Abrams writes in The Weekly Standard. "The president has been chief executive since January 20, but this week he acted also as Commander in Chief. And more: He finally accepted the role of Leader of the Free World." The New York Post's Ralph Peters concurs. "Incontestably, our president became…presidential." "Well done!"
Yes, Draco, well done.
CNN's Fareed Zakaria, a different person with a separate brain, agrees. "What changed last night?" CNN's Alisyn Camerota asked him this morning. "I think Donald Trump became President of the United States," Zakaria replied.
.@FareedZakaria on Syria strikes: "I think Donald Trump became President of the United States" last night https://t.co/dLipRu6SZu — New Day (@NewDay) April 7, 2017
MSNBC's Brian Williams, meanwhile, is not so much in love with Trump's speedy abandonment of non-intervention in Syria as he is with the bombs themselves: "I am tempted to quote the great Leonard Cohen: 'I am guided by the beauty of our weapons.'"
As Alex Pareene noted after Trump's inaugural address to Congress, this kind of praise is not just gross, but dangerous. Trump follows applause like a cat after a laser pointer, and the first bit of bipartisan recognition he received came in response to a raid that got Americans (and foreign civilians) killed. You think he didn't watch his shows this morning? Didn't see anchors across every network applauding his presidential behavior? If he was ambivalent yesterday, I imagine he's far less so today.
Right on cue, congressional hawks are calling for more. Sen. John McCain thinks bombing the airfield should be but the first step and Sen. Marco Rubio would like to remove Bashar Hafez al-Assad.
Trump controls the bombs, bombs thrill the chattering class, the chattering class thrills Trump. That is a scary cycle. Buckle up.
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