As President Trump was wrapping up his dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago – a hearty menu that included pan-seared Dover sole and dry-aged New York strip steak, paired with California wines – he delivered the news: The U.S. had launched strikes on Syria.
By this point, the first of 59 missiles already had started to rain down on the Assad airbase alleged to have been used to carry out this week’s deadly chemical attack. Planning for a U.S. response had been underway since Tuesday – but the final decision to order missile strikes, and the military’s execution of that directive, took place over the course of just a few hours Thursday evening.
The timeline of the president’s decision-making and the mission itself was detailed late Friday by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and other U.S. officials. The president’s top spokesman described the course of events as a “72-hour evolution” that involved “updates and options and refinements” before a final decision.
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“He’s not going to telegraph his next move,” Spicer cautioned, but described Thursday’s actions as carefully planned, decisive and “justified.”
According to Spicer and other officials, the timeline played out as follows:
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