President Donald Trump’s decision to authorize airstrikes in Syria in retaliation for an earlier chemical weapon attack by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was spurred by his daughter Ivanka, the U.K. tabloid Daily Express reports.
Trump has spent years warning against U.S. military action in Syria, but Ivanka’s frustration with a lack of response reportedly convinced the president to order a 59 Tomahawk missile launch on a Syrian air base.
“Increasingly, Ivanka is having more and more influence over her father,” a source reportedly told the Daily Express.
“She often counsels her father and was very clear that action needed to be taken against Assad in some form,” the London-based outlet reports. “Ivanka was infuriated over the lack of a direct response in the immediate aftermath of the Syrian attack.”
The outlet suggests that Ivanka Trump’s tweets about being “heartbroken and outraged” over Assad’s chemical weapon attack contributed to the public pressure that led to President Trump’s complete policy shift:
Heartbroken and outraged by the images coming out of Syria following the atrocious chemical attack yesterday.
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) April 5, 2017
By Thursday afternoon, the president was publicly condemning Syria’s Assad. Trump told reporters “something should happen” — and by 8:40 p.m. EDT, the U.S. had launched nearly 60 Tomahawk missiles at the Shayrat Airfield near Western Syria.
President Trump had already indicated — on Tuesday, before Ivanka’s tweet — that he had altered his position toward military action in Syria and would respond to Assad militarily, saying, “It is now my responsibility.”
Nevertheless, after the missile strike, Ivanka took to Twitter and said she was “proud” of the president.
“The times we are living in call for difficult decisions. Proud of my father for refusing to accept these horrendous crimes against humanity,” she wrote:
The times we are living in call for difficult decisions – Proud of my father for refusing to accept these horrendous crimes against humanity https://t.co/yV0oJuC9dE
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) April 7, 2017
“While her dad is driven by his ego and political point-scoring, Ivanka could not be more opposite,” an insider reportedly told the Daily Express.
The editorial voice of the Express is largely aligned withe the U.K. Independence Party (UKIP).
“As she was feeding her kids on Wednesday morning, she thought enough was enough and tweeted her thoughts for everyone to see,” the insider explained. “The response was quite immediate and clearly helped changed her father’s views on the issue of Syria.”
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson.
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