Thousands of President Donald Trump’s supporters jumped online to beg him not to intervene in the Syrian civil war after comments he made on Wednesday appeared to suggest a change in attitude towards Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Standing with Jordan’s King Abdullah II in a press conference at the White House, Trump told reporters, that this week’s chemical attack in Idlib province “was an affront to humanity,” and that it “crossed a lot of lines for me.” His remarks came as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said the U.S. would consider unilateral action in Syria if the UN Security Council didn’t respond to the attack.

People describing themselves as Trump’s fans on Twitter and Reddit made it clear they didn’t want the president to involve American troops in what has been one of the most intractable conflicts of recent years and has so far claimed an estimated 400,000 lives. A leading post on Reddit’s r/The_Donald bluntly said: “We elected you in order to prevent Hillary’s war with Syria! Please do not engage there.” The post received thousands of upvotes affirming the message.

Many Twitter users stressed the idea that having Americans fighting in Syria would be detrimental and it would also harm Trump’s standing with his base.

Dear @realDonaldTrump,

We Americans do not want to get involved in any Wars!

Not Syria, Not North Korea

Let Asia & Persia handle their own — Ðᴏɴᴀʟᴅ ҎΓΞƵ Ŧʀᴜᴍᴘ ⚫️ (@DonaldPrezTrump) April 6, 2017

Sir: Sticker has been on since Aug 2015. Listen to Steve, not Jared. We didn't vote for war on Syria. Respectfully, Coach @realdonaldtrump pic.twitter.com/Fq1J6feziY — DC Pilots (@DC_Pilots) April 6, 2017

https://twitter.com/Cernovich/status/849770968742453248

One widely repeated assertion among Trump fans was that the chemical attack, which killed at least 70 people, was a “false flag” intended to vilify the Assad regime and get the U.S. even more involved in Syria’s civil war then it is now. At present U.S. and coalition partners carry out air strikes on Islamic State positions in Syria and have largely avoided hitting Syrian or Russian troops.

Over the past 24 hours, the term “false flag,” as well as the hashtag #falseflag, were used in nearly 30,000 tweets, many of them directed at the president.

https://twitter.com/big_league_17/status/849860447306207233