Trump ‘caught off guard’ by recent Israeli strikes, White House says
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US President Trump ‘caught off guard’ by Israel’s strikes in Syria
U.S. President Donald Trump was “caught off guard” by Israeli strikes in Syria. He discussed the issue with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel had launched strikes on the Syrian capital Damascus and the southern city of Sweida. The strikes were part of a US-brokered deal to end the Syrian civil war, which began in March 2011. The U.S.-led coalition is now trying to broker an end to the conflict.
Syrian government security forces during their deployment in Busra al-Harir in Syria’s southern Daraa province, on July 21.
WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump was “caught off guard” by Israeli strikes in Syria last week , White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on July 21, adding that he discussed the issue with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel had launched strikes on the Syrian capital Damascus and the southern Druze-majority city of Sweida, saying it aimed to put pressure on the Syrian government to withdraw its troops from the region amid ongoing clashes there.
Mr Trump “was caught off guard by the bombing in Syria and also the bombing of a Catholic church in Gaza ,” Ms Leavitt told reporters at a press briefing.
“In both accounts, the president quickly called the prime minister to rectify those situations,” she continued.
Mr Netanyahu had visited the White House earlier this month, his third trip since Mr Trump returned to power on Jan 20.
“The president enjoys a good working relationship with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, and stays in, you know, frequent communication with him,” Ms Leavitt said.
“When it came to Syria, we saw a de-escalation there.”
Israel and Syria entered a US-brokered ceasefire o n July 18.
On the same day, PM Netanyahu called Pope Leo to express regret at the strike on the Catholic church in Gaza, blaming a “stray missile”.
In May, Mr Trump met Syria’s Islamist president Ahmad al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia shortly after lifting many longstanding US sanctions against Damascus.
Mr Trump later praised the Syrian leader, who led a major armed group that was once aligned with Al Qaeda and toppled the Syrian government in December.
The United States removed a bounty on Mr Sharaa’s head after he came to power. AFP
White House Says Gaza War Has Become ‘Brutal,’ Trump ‘Wants the Killing to End’
The World Health Organization said the Israeli military attacked its staff residence and main warehouse in the Gazan city of Deir al-Balah on Monday. Two WHO staff and two family members were detained, it said in a post on X. WHO said its main warehouse, located within an evacuation zone, was damaged on Sunday due to an attack that triggered explosions.
The United Nations agency said the WHO staff residence was attacked three times, with airstrikes causing a fire and extensive damage, and endangering staff and their families, including children.
“Israeli military entered the premises, forcing women and children to evacuate on foot toward Al-Mawasi amid active conflict. Male staff and family members were handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on the spot, and screened at gunpoint,” WHO said.
Two WHO staff and two family members were detained, it said in a post on X, adding that three were later released, while one staff member remained in detention.
“WHO demands the immediate release of the detained staff and protection of all its staff,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
WHO said its main warehouse, located within an evacuation zone, was damaged on Sunday due to an attack that triggered explosions and a fire inside.
WHO stated it will remain in Deir al-Balah and expand its operations despite the attacks.
Trump called Netanyahu to ‘rectify’ Gaza, Syria strikes: White House
US President Donald Trump was caught off guard by recent Israeli airstrikes in Gaza and Syria. He called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “rectify” both situations, the White House confirmed. Despite being close allies, Trump and Netanyahu share a complicated relationship marked by periods of mutual distrust. Trump had hoped Netanyahu’s recent visit to Washington would yield progress toward a ceasefire in Gaza, including the release of hostages held by Hamas. Hamas said it was “exerting all our efforts and energies around the clock” to reach an agreement with the U.S. Despite Trump’s repeated assertions that a deal was imminent, Netanyahu departed without any announcement, CNN quoted sources as saying all parties are still awaiting a response from Hamas to the latest ceasefire and hostage release proposal.
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A strike on the only Catholic Church in Gaza last Thursday drew an immediate reaction from Trump, who called Netanyahu to express his displeasure and ensure the Israeli leader issued a statement labelling the attack a mistake, CNN reported.
Trump was also surprised by Israeli airstrikes in the Syrian capital Damascus, which came as his administration works to stabilise the war-torn country. “The president enjoys a good working relationship with Bibi Netanyahu, and stays in frequent communication with him. He was caught off guard by the bombing in Syria and also the bombing of a Catholic Church in Gaza,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday.
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“In both accounts, the president quickly called the prime minister to rectify those situations,” she added.
CNN noted that despite being close allies, Trump and Netanyahu share a complicated relationship marked by periods of mutual distrust. While they cooperated closely during this summer’s joint air campaign in Iran, the personal dynamic between them has remained strained.
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Leavitt also pointed to diplomatic efforts in Syria led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has worked to ease tensions as the U.S. lifts sanctions and supports new Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former rebel leader, CNN reported.
Trump had hoped Netanyahu’s recent visit to Washington would yield progress toward a ceasefire in Gaza, including the release of hostages held by Hamas and expanded humanitarian aid access. Despite Trump’s repeated assertions that a deal was imminent, Netanyahu departed the U.S. without any announcement, CNN reported.
CNN quoted sources familiar with the negotiations as saying all parties are still awaiting a response from Hamas to the latest ceasefire and hostage release proposal. In a statement Monday, Hamas said it was “exerting all our efforts and energies around the clock” to reach an agreement.
Leavitt said Trump remains deeply concerned about the growing toll of the Gaza conflict. “The president’s message on this conflict we’ve seen in the Middle East taking place for far too long, that has become quite brutal, especially in recent days, you’ve seen reports of more people dying. I think the president never likes to see that. He wants the killing to end,” she said.
She further praised Trump’s efforts to push humanitarian aid into Gaza. “The president is the reason that aid is even being distributed in Gaza at all,” Leavitt stated, as per CNN. “He wants to see this done in a peaceful manner, where more lives are not being lost.”
CNN also reported that over 1,000 people have died seeking humanitarian relief in Gaza since late May, according to local health ministry figures. Foreign ministers from 25 nations recently criticized Israel for “drip feeding” aid into the region.
“It’s a very difficult and complicated situation that the president inherited because of the weakness of the last administration. And I think he should be applauded,” Leavitt added. “The president wants to see peace and he’s been pretty clear on that.” (ANI)
(This content is sourced from a syndicated feed and is published as received. The Tribune assumes no responsibility or liability for its accuracy, completeness, or content.)
Banishing a reporter: Trump escalates battle with Wall Street Journal over Epstein story
The White House said it was removing a Journal reporter from the pool covering the president’s trip this weekend to his golf courses in Turnberry and Aberdeen in Scotland. Trump filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Journal and Rupert Murdoch on Friday. The Journal has vowed to fight the lawsuit, which is the first time Trump has sued for defamation as a sitting president. The White House has also restricted the access of journalists from The Associated Press to press events when the news outlet would not change its style guidelines to reflect Trump”s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico. The president has been fighting to take away government support for news organizations like NPR and PBS because he says their news programming is biased against conservatives. The move is part of a broader pattern of trying to intimidate news organizations that report stories Trump does not like, said Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. The Wall Street Journal leans conservative editorially, but hasn’t been afraid to take Trump on in both its opinion and news sections.
President Donald Trump on Monday followed up his lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal over last week’s Jeffrey Epstein story by banishing one of the newspaper’s reporters from Air Force One for an upcoming Scotland trip.
The moves reflect Trump’s aggressiveness toward media who displease him — even a media magnate, Rupert Murdoch, with outlets that have been friendly to him in the past.
Trump filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Journal and Murdoch on Friday because of the newspaper’s article about a sexually suggestive letter bearing Trump’s name that was included in a 2003 album compiled for alleged sex trafficker Epstein’s birthday. The president has denied having anything to do with it.
On Monday, the White House said it was removing a Journal reporter from the pool covering the president’s trip this weekend to his golf courses in Turnberry and Aberdeen in Scotland. The Journal’s Tarini Parti had been scheduled to cover him on the trip.
“Due to the Wall Street Journal’s fake and defamatory conduct, they will not be one of the thirteen outlets on board,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
The Journal declined comment on the action.
Aggressiveness with the press is in the Trump playbook
It’s a tactic the Trump White House has used before. It restricted the access of journalists from The Associated Press to press events when the news outlet would not change its style guidelines to reflect Trump’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico. That launched a legal battle that is wending its way through the courts.
The defamation lawsuit is another tool Trump has used against media outlets. He has sued CBS News for its editing of a “60 Minutes” interview with former opponent Kamala Harris; ABC News for a false statement made by George Stephanopoulos in a story regarding a New York writer who had accused Trump of sexual abuse; and Meta after it removed Trump’s social media accounts following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
In each of those cases, Trump won multimillion-dollar settlements. But in those instances, news was only one part of a major corporation’s business. In the case of Murdoch and News Corp., news is the chief part of his business. The Journal has vowed to fight.
It’s also the first time Trump has sued for defamation as a sitting president, and it’s not clear whether any president has done that in the past.
“There’s nothing inherently wrong with a president bringing a libel suit,” said noted free speech attorney Floyd Abrams. “But this claim certainly seems like nothing more or less than an effort to suppress speech that our president finds discomforting. That’s not why we have libel law. It’s why we have a First Amendment.”
News organizations have reacted in varied ways
It’s all part of a broader pattern of trying to intimidate news organizations that report stories Trump does not like, said Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.
“These are lawsuits that have no hope of actually succeeding as lawsuits, but nevertheless have the potential to chill media organizations from doing what all of us need them to do,” Jaffer said.
Not every news organization has bowed down; “60 Minutes,” in fact, did some notably tough stories about the early days of Trump’s second administration. But it’s impossible to quantify stories that weren’t done because of fear of a fight with the White House, he said.
The Wall Street Journal leans conservative editorially, but hasn’t been afraid to take Trump on in both its opinion and news sections. Other Murdoch outlets — Fox News Channel and the New York Post — are much friendlier to him.
Ever since the administration announced that it would not be releasing additional government files from the case against Epstein, factions of Trump’s base supporters have turned on him. That has put some normally supportive news outlets in a difficult position.
Fox News largely avoided the story after Trump suggested his allies stop wasting time on it. But Fox’s Howard Kurtz reported on The Wall Street Journal lawsuit on his “Media Buzz” show Sunday, saying that by doing so, “the president has drawn extra attention to the Journal’s reporting.”
The president’s battle with the press has taken on several dimensions. He has been fighting to take away government support for news organizations like Voice of America, and last week the Republican-controlled Congress voted to take away federal funding from NPR and PBS because the president says their news programming is biased against conservatives.
David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.
Trump ‘caught off guard’ by Israeli operation in Syria: White House
US President Donald Trump was blindsided by Israel’s recent airstrikes in Syria. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump was not informed in advance. The strikes reportedly hit near the presidential palace and destroyed part of Syria’s defence ministry. Israel said the strikes were intended to protect the Druze, a small but politically sensitive minority in Syria with ties to Israel and Lebanon. The US has publicly distanced itself from the strikes, saying it did not support the latest Israeli military action.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump was not informed in advance of the Israeli operation, which targeted Syrian military sites in Damascus and the country’s south. The strikes reportedly hit near the presidential palace and destroyed part of Syria’s defence ministry.
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“He was “caught off guard” by the bombing in Syria and also the bombing of a Catholic Church in Gaza,” Leavitt said, referring to a separate Israeli strike last week. “In both accounts, the president quickly called the prime minister to rectify those situations.”
Israel said the strikes were intended to protect the Druze, a small but politically sensitive minority in Syria with ties to Israel and Lebanon. But the surprise move has raised questions inside the White House as Trump tries to broker an end to the Gaza war and throw US support behind Syria’s new government after years of civil war.
The airstrikes came just days before the Syrian state news agency accused Israel of launching more attacks near Sweida, a region gripped by fresh violence involving government troops, Druze militias, and Bedouin fighters. Dozens of people were reported killed.
While Trump and Netanyahu have long been in lockstep on Middle East policy — especially on Iran — Leavitt’s comments marked a rare public split. Trump is pushing for an end to the war in Gaza and trying to support the new Syrian government as the country emerges from years of civil war.
Trump’s special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, told The Associated Press that Israel’s intervention in Syria “creates another very confusing chapter” and “came at a very bad time.”
The US has publicly distanced itself from the strikes on July 17, saying it did not support the latest Israeli military action and had made its displeasure clear to officials in Jerusalem.
– Ends
With inputs from Associated Press
Published By: Satyam Singh Published On: Jul 22, 2025
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