“Let’s fucking kill him!” the president said. “Let’s go in. Let’s kill the fucking lot of them.” The military had the capability to launch a covert top secret leadership air strike in Syria. Trump sounded personally attacked. Syria had promised not to use chemical weapons—an apparent reference to Syrian president Assad’s agreement to destroy all his chemical weapons. Yes, Mattis said. He would get right on it. He hung up the phone. “We’re not going to do any of that,” he told a senior aide. “We’re going to be much more measured.”
