The Atlantic

The Trump Administration Appears to Embrace Regime Change in Syria

In an about-face, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said of Bashar al-Assad: “It would seem there would be no role for him to govern the Syrian people.”
Source: Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

Updated at 3:01 p.m. ET

During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump was careful to point out that he thought fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Islamic State at the same time was “madness and idiocy.”

I think that our far bigger problem than Assad is ISIS, I’ve always felt that,” he in March 2016. “Assad is, you know, I’m not saying Assad is a good man, ’cause he’s not, but our far greater problem is not Assad, it’s

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