President Donald Trump left vague the timing of a possible attack on Syria. | Chris Kleponis/Getty Images Trump on Syria attack timing: 'Could be very soon or not so soon at all!'

President Donald Trump insisted Thursday that he had not surrendered the element of surprise by announcing plans to launch a missile strike against Syria, writing online that he had said nothing regarding the timing of his planned strike.

President Donald Trump insisted Thursday that he had not surrendered the element of surprise by announcing plans to launch a missile strike against Syria, writing online that he had said nothing regarding the timing of his planned strike.


“Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all!” the president wrote on Twitter. “In any event, the United States, under my Administration, has done a great job of ridding the region of ISIS. Where is our ‘Thank you America?’”

Later Thursday, Trump said a decision about a strike against Syria would “be made fairly soon,” offering less certainty in his remarks than he had a day earlier on Twitter.

“We’re looking very, very seriously, very closely at that whole situation. And we’ll see what happens, folks. We’ll see what happens. It’s too bad that the world puts us in a position like that,” Trump told reporters Thursday morning. “But you know, as I said this morning, we’ve done a great job with ISIS. We have just absolutely decimated ISIS. But now we have to make some further decisions. So they’ll be made fairly soon.”

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He added that he had a meeting on the Syria situation later in the day.

Trump announced Wednesday that he intended to launch a missile strike against the government of Bashar al-Assad, retaliation for the Syrian government’s alleged use of chemical weapons on a civilian population in a suburb of Damascus last weekend.

The president’s willingness to announce plans for a military strike ran counter to his long-held position against telegraphing such moves, a practice he has called stupid and accused his predecessors of.

Such a strike would be the second of Trump’s presidency: A 2017 chemical weapon attack by Assad’s regime prompted Trump to order the launch of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles against the airstrip where the chemical attack was believed to have originated. That airstrip was quickly repaired.

In announcing plans to strike Assad’s government, Trump also dismissed pledges from Russia, a close ally of Syria, to shoot down any U.S. missile strike.

“Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and ‘smart!’” Trump wrote online Wednesday. “You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!”

In response to Trump’s warning, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman wrote on Facebook that any U.S. missile strike would destroy evidence of the alleged chemical weapons attack. Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, after Russian-sponsored resolutions failed to garner enough votes at the Security Council, said, “I would once again ask you, once again beseech you, to refrain from the plans that you’re currently developing for Syria,” according to Reuters.

Trump has often been accused of holding a relatively soft foreign policy stance toward Russia, especially relative to his tougher posturing elsewhere around the world, as a result of his previous warm words for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his months-long reluctance to blame the Kremlin for its efforts to interfere in the 2016 election. He has regularly called the investigation into those efforts, as well as allegations that his campaign colluded with them, a “witch hunt.”

The Trump administration, though, has insisted that it has been tougher on Russia than its predecessors, pointing to increased military spending and the imposition of sanctions. The Trump administration has also ordered the closure of two Russian consulates, one in Seattle and the other in San Francisco, and has expelled dozens of Russian diplomats.

The White House on Thursday evening said in a statement that “no final decision has been made” in regards to Syria, following a meeting between Trump and his national security team.

Trump will speak with President Emmanuel Macron of France and the British prime minister, Theresa May, on Thursday evening, according to the statement released by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

“We are continuing to assess intelligence and are engaged in conversations with our partners and allies,” she said in the statement.

