Today in 5 Lines
President Trump’s decision to order strikes against a Syrian air base late Thursday is facing backlash: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad denounced the strike as “reckless” and “irresponsible,” and in a meeting of the UN Security Council, Vladimir Safronkov, Russia’s deputy envoy to the UN, warned that the consequences of the strike could be “extremely serious.” Republican and Democratic lawmakers also responded to the attack. The Senate confirmed Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court. Officials said a manhunt is under way for the suspect who drove a truck into a department store in Stockholm, Sweden, killing at least four people and injuring 15 others in what Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven called a “terrorist attack.” The U.S. added 98,000 jobs in March, significantly less than economists’ predictions.
Today on The Atlantic
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R.I.P., Obama Doctrine: During his administration, former President Obama went against conventional wisdom by resisting U.S. military involvement in the Middle East. Donald Trump’s decision to order an attack against Syria, however, proves that “a core principle of the Obama Doctrine is dead.” (Jeffrey Goldberg)
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A Bitter Disappointment: Striking Syria has made Trump popular with the Washington elites he campaigned against. Many of his most ardent supporters are less enthusiastic, revealing the White House’s “less-than-full devotion to the movement that formed the ideological backbone for Trump’s election.” (Rosie Gray)
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A Victim of Success: In 2013, Russia proposed that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad turn over his chemical weapons to an international coalition. The move presented Russia as an arbiter of geopolitics, but it also further emboldened Assad, argues Julia Ioffe. Now, Moscow’s efforts “look either less than thorough, or gruesomely insincere.”
