Sitting on gold-painted chairs in a secure room within the Mar-a-Lago resort, US President Donald Trump and many of his closest counsel discuss the Syrian catastrophe.

A photograph of the scene – tweeted by White House press secretary Sean Spicer after President Trump ordered missile strikes on Syrian government targets – may become a defining image of his presidency.

The photograph's cast controls trillions of dollars and the world's most advanced military.

Already, it has been compared to the picture of then president Barack Obama in the White House Situation Room monitoring the strike on Osama Bin Laden with his top advisers.