‘Let’s f–king kill’ Assad, Trump told Jim Mattis in 2017: Woodward book

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President Trump told Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis that he wanted to “fucking kill” Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, according to a new book by veteran journalist Bob Woodward.

“Let’s fucking kill him! Let’s go in. Let’s kill the fucking lot of them,” Trump told Mattis in a phone call following a chemical weapons attack in April 2017 that left more than 80 civilians in Syria dead.

Although Mattis initially told Trump that he would move forward with the plan, he immediately told a staffer that they would take a more “measured” approach.

“We’re not going to do any of that,” Mattis told a senior aide after the phone call. “We’re going to be much more measured.” The national security team proceeded to construct plans for the April 2017 retaliatory missile strike on a Syrian air base.

The conversation was detailed in Woodward’s upcoming book “Fear: Trump in the White House,” according to excerpts published by the Washington Post on Tuesday.

Additionally, the book details a January meeting with the National Security Council where Trump called into question having a large U.S. military presence on the Korean Peninsula.

There, the U.S. maintains a special intelligence operation in the region that allows the U.S. to spot a North Korean missile launch in seven seconds, in comparison to 15 minutes from Alaska. But Trump openly challenged why the U.S. was using government resources in the area.

“We’re doing this in order to prevent World War III,” Mattis told Trump.

After Trump left the meeting, a frustrated Mattis compared Trump to an elementary or middle school student.

“Mattis was particularly exasperated and alarmed, telling close associates that the president acted like — and had the understanding of — ‘a fifth- or sixth-grader,’” Woodward writes.

Mattis also defended former Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., during a dinner with Trump and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., after Trump inaccurately accused McCain of being a coward for accepting an early release from a Vietnam prisoner-or-war camp. McCain actually refused to accept an early release and was instead subjected to torture.

“No, Mr. President, I think you’ve got it reversed,” Mattis said in response.

According to Woodward, multiple top advisers have been concerned by Trump’s behavior on multiple occasions, including Mattis and White House chief of staff John Kelly. Woodward wrote that Mattis joked with friends about Trump’s habit of going down rabbit holes on topics such as immigration and the media.

“Secretaries of defense don’t always get to choose the president they work for,” Mattis said.

Meanwhile, Kelly reportedly told colleagues Trump was “unhinged” and an “idiot.” He also allegedly said working at the White House was “the worst job I’ve ever had.”

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