A force of Syrians and Russian mercenaries loyal to Bashar al-Assad attacked a group of Kurdish rebels backed by American forces two weeks ago in what has been written off as an incidental confrontation. Moscow has disavowed the Russian mercenaries involved in the attack who, from what we know, were completely annihilated. Anywhere from 100 to 300 were killed, depending on which report you're reading.
It's their annihilation that Trump now wants to brag about according to a report from Bloomberg.
Although the battle occurred without any direction or knowledge from Trump, he wants to take credit for killing the Russians to compensate for special prosecutor Robert Mueller's investigation.
The Trump administration is considering citing the deaths of scores of Russian mercenaries in a Feb. 7 battle with U.S.-backed forces in Syria as evidence of the president’s tough stance toward the Kremlin, a person familiar with the matter said.
Trump himself would like to publicly make the case that the battle shows his resolve to confront Moscow, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He faces greater pressure to act after the indictment of 13 Russians and a St. Petersburg “troll farm” on Feb. 16 for allegedly leading a coordinated effort to influence the 2016 election. In a weekend tweet storm, Trump claimed the indictment exonerated him, but never criticized Russia.
Trump has many bad ideas but this is an idea that's so bad it hadn't even crossed my mind.
It remains to be seen if the Trump regime will go through with it, but Trump wants to inflame an armed conflict with Russian and Syrian forces to compensate for his own ego that was damaged by Mueller's indictments.
The Russians forces that were massacred in Syria are reportedly controlled by a private military contractor owned by Yevgeny "Putin's Chef" Prigozhin. Prigozhin was among the 13 Russian nationals indicted by Mueller last week.
Who can say if Prigozhin's forces will respond if Trump publicly takes credit for killing them? How will Moscow react if they do?
See, it's a really, really bad idea to elect a president who is entirely driven by his own ego and vanity; a man who doesn't give two shits whose lives he endangers in service of himself.