Striking at Assad Carries Opportunities, and Risks, for Trump<br />But the Syria action gives the Trump administration an opportunity to demand<br />that Mr. Putin either contain or remove Syria’s leader, Bashar al-Assad, or else Mr. Trump will expand the limited American military action — and quickly — if the Russian president fails to do so.<br />The attack will also shape the meeting next week between Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson<br />and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia — the first face-to-face encounter between the Russian leader and a member of the Trump administration.<br />President Trump spoke after the United States carried out a missile attack in Syria<br />on Thursday in response to the Syrian government’s deadly chemical weapons attack.<br />By DAVID E. SANGERAPRIL 7, 2017<br />President Trump retaliated against the Assad government for a chemical attack in Syria that killed more than 80 civilians.<br />WASHINGTON — In launching a military strike just 77 days into his administration, President Trump has the opportunity,<br />but hardly a guarantee, to change the perception of disarray in his administration.<br />The question now is whether his new, untested team — divided in their own definitions of how<br />and when to use American power — can turn the intervention in Syria into something more than a symbolic show of force.
