On Tuesday over eighty people were killed by a chemical attack in Syria’s Idlib Province in a gruesome scene that saw dozens of civilians foaming at the mouth, choking, and gasping for air as they inhaled sarin, a poisonous nerve agent.

Western leaders quickly blamed the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, who the Obama Administration had also previously accused of using chemical weapons in 2013.

President Trump reportedly learned of the attack Tuesday morning, seizing on the opportunity to fill his role as commander in chief and claiming “I now have responsibility” at a news conference standing beside King Abdullah II of Jordan in the rose garden on Wednesday.

Trump said that the chemical attack “crossed a lot of lines for me”, adding “When you kill innocent children, innocent babies — babies, little babies — with a chemical gas that is so lethal…that crosses many, many lines, beyond a red line.”

The President had previously been reluctant to advocate for any U.S. involvement in Syria’s civil war, which has killed over 400,000 people and displaced or wounded over 14 million in six years. On Wednesday he said “It’s very, very possible that my attitude towards Syria and Assad has changed very much.”

On Thursday, accompanied by senior advisors including Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus, and his daughter Ivanka, President Trump gave the go-ahead to launch a missile strike against an airfield in Syria from his Mar-a-Lago estate.

In a strike intended to “deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons”, the Pentagon announced that 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles had been fired at Assad’s Al Shayrat airfield — targeting fighter jets, aircraft shelters, radar equipment, ammunition bunkers, and air defense systems.

The Tomahawk strike reportedly killed nine civilians including four children and was met with a statement from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman who said that the military action “deals a significant blow to relations between Russia and America, which are already in a poor state.”

The relationship between the Trump campaign and Russia remains under investigation by several Congressional committees, with House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-CA) announcing that he’ll step aside for now after it was reported he is the subject of an investigation by the Congressional Ethics Office for disclosing classified information.

President Trump has been eager to shake off the questions about Russia looming over his administration, and his new stance on Syria could mark the end of his ‘honeymoon’ with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russia diverted a warship to protect the Syrian coast and vowed to prop up Assad’s missile defenses in response to the strike.

The flare-up in Syria came during Trump’s first meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has so far declined to comment publicly on the Tomahawk strike.

Xi’s first visit to the U.S. under the new administration was already set to be an awkward one, considering Trump’s comment on the campaign trail that “we can’t continue to allow China to rape our country” and his assertion that the trade deficit between the U.S. and China is “the greatest theft in the history of the world.”

Trump announced the attack shortly after hosting an elegant dinner with Xi Thursday evening during which his granddaughter sang in Chinese for the Chinese President and his wife. It is unclear whether Tump informed Xi of the strike prior to making his public announcement or not.

Many have speculated that the decisiveness and timing of the missile strike against the Assad regime could also be intended to send a message to the international community about North Korea.

Last month Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced on a trip to South Korea that the “policy of strategic patience” towards North Korea “has ended.” The vague declaration was met with confusion as to what specifically Tillerson meant, and questions of whether the U.S. would be going to war with North Korea.

As a new THAAD missile defense system was installed in South Korea against China’s will, Tillerson maintained that military action is “an option” in the conflict.

Ultimately, the Trump Administration’s missile strike in Syria sends the message to both North Korea and China that the U.S. will step in when and where it deems necessary, without warning.

With a reshuffled national security council sans Steve Bannon now counseling the President and decisive military action being taken — contradictory as it may be to Trump’s campaign promises — it’s clear that this White House is trying to shed its training wheels and be taken seriously.