Trump Declares "Mission Accomplished" With No Sense Of Irony After Syrian Missile Strikes

Donald Trump tweeted "Mission Accomplished!" Saturday morning after U.S. led military strikes in Syria in response to a suspected gas attack on the rebel-held city of Douma last weekend.

From The New York Times:

Warplanes and ships from the United States, Britain and France launched more than 100 missiles at three chemical weapons storage and research facilities near Damascus and Homs, the officials told reporters, in an operation that President Trump and Pentagon leaders hailed as a success.

“A perfectly executed strike last night,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. “Thank you to France and the United Kingdom for their wisdom and the power of their fine Military. Could not have had a better result. Mission Accomplished!”

Still, even as Mr. Trump lauded “our great Military,” the reality was that, for the second time in just over a year, he had sent missiles crashing into Syrian military targets, adding American firepower to one of the most complex and multisided conflicts in a generation.

Beyond the immediate question of whether the strikes actually accomplished the stated goal of diminishing Syria’s capacity to make and use chemical weapons, the new strikes posed the risk of drawing the United States more deeply into a conflict in which Russia and Iran have more invested than ever in keeping Mr. Assad in power.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad announced the strikes would increase Syria’s resolve to “fight and crush terrorism in every inch” of the country.

A perfectly executed strike last night. Thank you to France and the United Kingdom for their wisdom and the power of their fine Military. Could not have had a better result. Mission Accomplished!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 14, 2018

The "Mission Accomplished" comment reminded many of President George W. Bush's woefully tone-deaf 2003 "mission accomplished" moment.

President Trump doesn’t seem to realize that “Mission Accomplished!” has a certain echo to it. The Middle East tends to draw things out a little longer than politicians expect. pic.twitter.com/dR9qI7kCtX

— Tim O'Brien (@TimOBrien) April 14, 2018

Mission Accomplished??? Is there ANYONE in the White House with an understanding of history? pic.twitter.com/pfodHcMZAg

— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) April 14, 2018

I'm not sure what bugs me more:

-That trump is so ENTIRELY clueless that he misses the historic Bush gaffe of saying "Mission Accomplished" prematurely.

-That his ONLY *mission* was to change the news cycle.

-That it worked.#SaturdayMorning https://t.co/GjVSnbsth2

— BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) April 14, 2018

I didn’t think I could be shocked by a tweet anymore but “mission accomplished” was so surprising I had to double check that it was not a spoof.

— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) April 14, 2018

The term "mission accomplished" was ultimately damaging for Pres. George W Bush but apparently not a concern for Pres. Trump https://t.co/CXwBIqWTE4

— Kelly O'Donnell (@KellyO) April 14, 2018

Many hard-line Trumpers were dismayed that Trump, who promised an anti-interventionist approach during the 2016 presidential campaign, moved forward with the attack at all.

Ann Coulter spent the evening retweeting criticism of the strikes while Alex Jones had a melt-down on Info Wars:

Alex Jones on Trump launching strikes in Syria... pic.twitter.com/FkPt3xnok4

— Andrew Peng (@TheAPJournalist) April 14, 2018

At least I won’t feel bad when he gets impeached.

— Mike Cernovich 🇺🇸 (@Cernovich) April 14, 2018

And then there were these takes on the attack:

Trump has accomplished nothing.

THIS is what a Mission Accomplished looks like — when Obama got Bin Laden: pic.twitter.com/e4uu1zk2qq

— Kaivan Shroff (@KaivanShroff) April 14, 2018

112 tomahawk missiles launched at Syria.

Each costs $1.87M to make.

That's $224M total.

Estimated cost to replace Flint's pipes? $55M.

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) April 14, 2018