When Trump was asked if he planned to intervene in Syria after Assad launched a Sarin gas attack against the city of Idlib, he repeated a line that he's used many times over the past two years when discussing foreign policy.
"I'm certainly not going to be telling you" he said.
Trump told reporters he does not like to telegraph his responses.
“I’m not saying I’m doing anything one way or the other,” Trump said. “But I’m certainly not going to be telling you, as much as I respect you,” referring to the reporter who asked the question.
You may not want to publicly disclose yours plan (if you even have a plan) in the event that your enemies are listening, but that's exactly what Trump did in private.
Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis confirmed that Russian forces were notified in advance of the cruise missile attack on an airfield held by the Assad regime and, naturally, that information was passed on to Assad's forces.
Witnesses say the targeted airfield in Shayrat was evacuated hours before the attack according to ABC News.
Syrian military officials appeared to anticipate Thursday night's raid on Syria's Shayrat air base, evacuating personnel and moving equipment ahead of the strike, according to an eyewitness. [...]
The eyewitness believes human casualties, at least within the civilian population, were minimal, as there was no traffic heading toward the local hospital.
The French press also reports that Syrian forces used the advance notice to move valuable equipment.
“We learned of the American threat and the expected military bombardment on Syrian territory,” the source told AFP.
“We took precautions in more than one military point, including in the Shayrat airbase. We moved a number of airplanes towards other areas,” the official said, adding they were forewarned “hours” before the strike.
From this we can infer that Trump's expensive attack on an empty airfield accomplished basically nothing, unless you consider provoking a wider conflict to be an accomplishment.
The Russians and Syrian forces loyal to Assad knew about the attack hours before the American public or members of Congress.