Talk about making lemons out of lemonade. On CNN today Josh Rogin tried his best to paint President Trump’s decision to order strikes against Syria in the worst possible light.

The CNN analyst made the claim that by ordering the strikes, Trump “burned all his supporters in spectacular fashion.”

It’s true that some prominent supporters, notably Ann Coulter, are displeased. But “all” Trump’s supporters? Or even most of them? Surely, a significant majority of people who support Trump support the strikes.

That is borne out by an online poll conducted by the Drudge Report. While not scientific it is likely a good gauge of Trump-base opinion. The majority, at 66%, say they think the strikes were a good idea, with only 21% saying they were a bad idea.

Rogin later doubled down on his theory, saying that if Trump orders any further actions in Syria “he’ll burn his supporters even more,” while alienating his new-found friends who supported the strikes.

Concluded the Rogin: Trump’s “put himself in a tough spot.”

BRIANNA KEILAR: What do the quote unquote real people, the supporters who voted him into office. What do they think? Are they following suit here do you think? JOSH ROGIN: No. He burned all of his supporters in a spectacular fashion, in an effort to sort of be the anti-Obama. It’s kind of crazy. He can’t really repair that. Now he has to lean on his new-found support from the people who opposed him for the last year and a half and that support is dependent on him doing not just this but a lot more, more heavily involve the United States in Syria which is not clear that he wants to do. He could end up with the worst of both worlds being called a hypocrite by those who voted for him and being called enough of an interventionalist by his new friends. Right now he’s getting a lot of praise. We’ll see what happens in a couple of days when Assad perpetrates another attack or Russians escalate on the ground. Is Donald Trump going to continue escalating US involvement in Syria? I think he doesn’t know yet. If he does he’ll burn his supporters more. If he doesn’t he’ll lose the praise of his new friends. He’s put himself in a tough spot.



