And both Israel and Lebanon are appalled. Trump sees Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa as a “strong leader,” someone who can take on Hezbollah and deal better with it than Israel. That is not how either Beirut or Jerusalem sees things. More on Trump’s suggestion that Lebanon let Syria back in to crush Hezbollah can be found here: “Trump presses Syria to take on Hezbollah, raising alarm in both Lebanon and Israel, Associated Press, June 29, 2026:
As the White House has soured on Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, U.S. President Donald Trump has shocked many in the region by pushing an alternative: Let Syria fight the Iran-backed militant group instead.
He has suggested that the battle-hardened and Islamist-led insurgents who overthrew Syria’s autocratic President Bashar Assad a year and a half ago and formed a new government would do a better job of rooting out Hezbollah than the Israeli army.
Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa has said he has no interest in doing so, and has asserted that Trump’s comments were misconstrued. But Trump has doubled down on the idea….
On the sidelines of the G7 summit earlier this month, Trump complained that Israel’s war with Hezbollah is dragging on too long and “too many people are being killed.”
More than 4,000 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon since Hezbollah joined the wider Iran war with a March 2 attack on Israel, including hundreds of women and children. Israel says its strikes target Hezbollah and that it takes measures to protect civilians.
“You don’t have to knock down an apartment house every time you’re looking for somebody, because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses and they’re not all Hezbollah,” Trump said.
“I suggested to Israel to let Syria take care of Hezbollah. ‘Cause to be honest with you, I think they’d do a better job.”
Days later, on the first day of U.S.-Iran talks in Switzerland, Fox News’ Trey Yingst said that, during an interview, Trump had expressed disappointment that Israel can’t “put Hezbollah away” and said that he is “close to giving it to Syria” because he thinks al-Sharaa would be more precise….
If Trump thinks the Syrian army would be more precise in its strikes, and kill fewer civilians, than the IDF, then he is clearly unfamiliar with how the Syrian army has behaved since 1976, when it first entered Lebanon, guns blazing or when, during the Syrian civil war, it crushed Assad’s enemies. Think only of the 40,000 civilians that the Syrian army killed in 1982, when it flattened Hama.
In a June 21 interview with the Emirati network Al Mashhad, al-Sharaa said Trump’s remarks had been misunderstood.
Trump “spoke about Syria’s role in finding a safe and peaceful solution, but the statement was misinterpreted as if Syria were going to invade Lebanon tomorrow morning,” al-Sharaa said….
No, Trump meant what he said: he thinks Syria should enter Lebanon in order to subdue and disarm Hezbollah. And Syria has no intention of doing that. What we have here, as it says in Cool Hand Luke, is “a failure to communicate.”
Randa Slim, director of the Middle East Program at the Washington-based Stimson Center, said Trump’s proposal is, “at best, driven by a profound ignorance of the dynamics on the ground.”
“Syria needs to focus on a myriad of complex and daunting challenges — not least rebuilding a shattered country and repatriating millions of refugees,” she said. “Syrian forces are far from a coherent military institution; they include thousands of foreign jihadi fighters of uncertain loyalty and discipline.”…
In fact, Trump seems not to realize that al-Sharaa is a Sunni jihadist, and not the “moderate in a suit” that he pretends to be. Al-Sharaa has allowed the Syrian army to attack both the Alawites in Idlib province and also the Druze whose stronghold is the Sweida governorate, between Damascus and the border with northern Israel. Not only should al-Sharaa be concentrating on putting his own house in order, and protecting the country’s minorities — the Christians, Druze, and Kurds — instead of meddling in Lebanese matters, but he needs to be kept out of Lebanon for another reason. Once inside Lebanon, his army would likely remain in Lebanon, setting up permanent bases that will certainly alarm Israel. Fortunately, he’s made clear he doesn’t want to go into Lebanon. He has enough on his plate.
Many Lebanese also have bitter memories of the decades of Syrian occupation of Lebanon, which began during the Lebanese civil war, initially at the request of Lebanese authorities and with the backing of Arab states, ending in 2005.
That history remains firmly in Lebanese minds. They don’t want a repetition of the past, when Syria was invited in to impose a Pax Syriana on the warring parties in the Lebanese civil war, but ended up staying for 29 years, from 1976 to 2005, effectively ruling Lebanon for much of that time.
The [Israeli] official who spoke anonymously said that Israel is also concerned about some signs that Syria could assume its old role in Lebanese politics. But the official said while Israel is closely watching developments between Syria and Lebanon, its main concern is Hezbollah.
And it is not Syria, but the IDF and the newly-strengthened Lebanese Armed Forces that together will disarm Hezbollah, whatever our president may so bizarrely think.
jerry glenn says
As Erdogan assures us, Islam is Islam. It looks like Trump hasn’t gotten the messsge.
Pray Hard says
C’mon, PT, get a clue or how much is this going to cost us?!
Beans🫘 says
Trump is a sucker for a pretty face and for Islamic Taquia. Tell me I’m wrong. Think about it for a second.
Erdogan , Qatar, Jolani, etc
I think Israel is out of favor right now. He is blaming Israel for both of us being in trouble with Iran war. You can’t do that. You have your own intelligence and you went in off that. Now man up and make the deal.
Maria V says
Trump is Not too bright when it comes to the Middle East. He actually believes he can work with them or bring about Peace in the Middle East. The people in the Middle East are of a different breed with violence, lies & death as their middle name throughout the centuries of their existence.
Now Trump sees the president of Saria as a game player? He’s been killing the Druze, Christians & Kurds since he took office. Trump is either very gullible or very ignorant of Middle East history.
I don’t see Trump getting out of this quagmire anytime soon.
Karen Dowden says
He is not bright about Islam. He has no clue and there is no one in his administration, except Rubio who does. His suggestion is so laughable. He really believes Jolani is above board. He does not understand he is asking one jihadi to attack another. This is crazy!!!!!
Wellington says
Either Trump really knows what he is doing, above and beyond virtually everyone else, or he doesn’t know at all what he is doing. No in-between here.
Karen Dowden says
As I just responded to Maria V. He does not understand Islam. He is way out of his league there.
Sad – asking one Jihadi to attack another.
gravenimage says
Jihadis attack each other all the time–but this is just a power struggle, and seldom benefits any civilized person.
Stive says
Trump is far from ignorant. The 80 year old narcissist simply made his greatest deal with Lucifer the devil and so he must change more and more. The most lethal people are people who go bad and their followers don’t catch in so fast.
Wellington says
Trump has made a deal with the devil, he’s gone bad? Do you comprehend at all how such a statement by yourself would lead many people to not take you seriously at all? Just wondering.
maria v says
I AM NOT STIVE..!! YOU SENT THIS TO THE WRONG PERSON !
Wellington says
How did I send this to the wrong person? I responded to Stive’s 2:30 P.M. post with my 3:15 P.M. post. Respectfully, maria v, I wasn’t responding to you at all. In fact, your assertion that Trump is ignorant (or gullible) is one I think has merit. My objection to Stive’s post is rooted in what I consider total nonsense, i.e., the Lucifer crap et al.
maria v says
well Mr. Stive, I want you to know that this came right to my mail box the first and the second time even though you state you were NOT responding to me.
No worries !
somehistory says
If you check a box at the end of the comment, you will get email messages when another person comments; whether to your or anoter…..as in this case.
It often happens with me that my computer checks the box and if I don’t see it, I get emails when others comment.
I already receive so many emails, I never check it on purpose; but it gets checked sometimes, anyway
Look at that and see if your box is checked to get emails.
maria v says
I SEE, THANK YOU FOR THE EXPLANATION…!!!
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I don’t take the Lucifer stuff seriously, but I do otherwise agree w/ Stive that Trump is a narcissist, whose narcissistic tendencies have gotten even stronger after he’s hit 80
I loved Trump 45, even if I was underwhelmed by his personnel appointments (Mattis, McMaster, Tillerson, Esper,…). But I just can’t stand Trump 47, even though I like some of his personnel appointments (Hegseth, Patel, Bongino, Tulsi, Kennedy,….) First, last year, it was his obsession w/ the Nobel Prize, which was very unseemly, and then now, it’s his insistence on stealing the show from Israel, but then mucking it all up. Israel had/has a coherent goal in wanting regime change in Iran. Whereas Trump has a nebulus wish of seeing Iran discontinue its nukes and ballistic missile programs – something that this regime is never gonna give up
I think Trump’s mental faculties have devolved over the last year. No, it’s not as bad as Dems claim – about him falling asleep, forgetting things,…. But it is bad in that previously, he had pretty good self control over his baser instincts (everyone has those: I don’t hold it against him for having them). But over the last year, his control over those baser instincts have eroded w/ age, which is why we are seeing those emerge much more prominently than before
somehistory says
I have often wondered if someone is *doctoring* his food and drinks.
In ancient times. kings and other rulers had “cup bearers.” Perhaps he needs one. some one truly trustworthy.
gravenimage says
Trump Wants Syria to ‘Fight Hezbollah’ in Lebanon
………………………………………….
So he wants to establish Sunni terrorism instead of Shia terrorism in Lebanon–and for this he demanded that civilized Israel stand down? I doubt that President Trump even realizes that this this would be the result–*deeply* disturbing.
Beans🫘 says
I think this is Erdogans idea to surround Israel, and he is positioning it to Trump as a solution for peace, to have Al Shara troops on the border of Northern Israel.
No coincidence this came out the same time as his meeting and calls with his friend Erdogan.
In military science, having two pincers on an enemy nation is absolutely essential, and Turkey will now have it if this goes through. One from the North, the premium one, and one from the East, a tougher one.
Karen Dowden says
As I just responded to Maria V. He does not understand Islam. He is way out of his league there.
Sad – asking one Jihadi to attack another.