Trump admits he was 'all set' to assassinate Assad after calling reports of the plan 'fiction'

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

In Bob Woodward's previous book, Fear, the journalist describes a scene from 2017 in which President Trump pushed then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis to "kill" Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after he launched a chemical attack on civilians. Mattis, Woodward reported, opted for a more measured approach in the end.

Trump responded at the time that assassinating Assad "was never even contemplated, nor would it be contemplated," while generally describing the book as "fiction."

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.