Donald Trump ur ett vitnationalistiskt perspektiv

Obviously, chemicals have been used by Assad in the past. In his first 70 days, the President was very taken by this. But also, I think this was -- as you mentioned correctly, this was a 72-hour evolution of receiving updates and options and refinement through additional questions that the President made to come to a final decision.

Q But the question is, was there a sense of the skepticism at the beginning, where he said, look, are you sure that --

MR. SPICER: No. No. I spoke with him. I had an opportunity to see him initially, right after that PDB, and he was very moved and found the event extremely tragic. So I think, from the get-go, it was very, very disturbing and tragic and moving to him.

Q As far as this 72-hour evolution, does the President now believe Assad needs to leave power?

MR. SPICER: I think that the President’s actions were very decisive last night and I think are very clear about what he thinks needs to get done. I think, first and foremost, the President believes that the Syrian government, the Assad regime should, at the minimum, agree to abide by the agreements that they made not to use chemical weapons. I think that should be a minimum standard throughout the world.

So I think that’s where we start. I think a very, very clear message was sent last night, one that was backed up and echoed by not only our own leaders here in this country but throughout the world.

Q Sean, the President, during the campaign, warned that action against the Assad regime could result or devolve into World War III. He talked about the risks of drawing in Russia and Iran into a broader conflict. Is the President at all concerned about that happening, or the fact that as U.S. planes fly over the Syrian skies that they could run into interference from either Russian or Syrian defense systems?

MR. SPICER: I think if you’ve seen the response from the world community, including some of the countries that you’ve mentioned, I think that they understand that the U.S. acted appropriately and, in most cases, there is widespread praise from around the globe for the President’s actions.

Q But is that not something that he’s concerned about anymore?

MR. SPICER: I think the President -- as I said, the team last night -- Secretary of Defense Mattis, Secretary of State Tillerson, the Vice President, the Chief of Staff, National Security Advisor was on the phone not just with members of Congress but with foreign heads of government as well as defense ministers, and almost universally were praised for the President’s decisive action.