consequences. gayle, what would be the consequences, do you think, of a u.s. strike in syria this time, especially if russia troops were caught up in the damage? listen, it s so fascinating because for years since the isis fight started, deconfliction has been the norm between the united states and russia. they have gone out of their way on the military side to truly avoid any direct engagement, and now you see the situation where it is nearly unavoidable, right. you have the president really calling out the russian regime the russian president by name saying that they back the assad regime to the nth degree and show no signs of backing down and will be held responsible for it. the question we now see is will deconfliction give way to direct engagement between these two powers? elise, you mentioned this emergency u.n. security council meeting that was called. should we expect a different outcome this time around? i don t think so, ana. i mean, look, the russians are a permanent
speaking now in washington about syria and the way ahead in the isis fight. heather: let us know what he says. lucas tomlinson live. thank you. bill: 10 minutes past the hour. breaking news from a federal courthouse. the first person expected to be sentenced after pleading guilty in january details on what is happening inside coming up this hour. heather: the stunning new interview with saudi arabia yeah s crown prince and why he is slamming the obama administration s nuke deal saying the supreme leader is worse than hitler. bill: cnn reporter facing a lot of criticism after bombarding the president with tough questions in front of children at the easter egg roll. the president answered those questions. howard kurtz will analyze. he fires back next. president trump: the democrats have really let them down. why did we re-engineer america s #1 detergent?
the direction which secretary mattis, the pentagon and others are going, more us troops coming in this spring to raise the number to 50,000 troops but this jet is very important. these reserve squadrons are originally going to turkey for the isis fight but because of the success of ice in iraq and syria, these jets were more needed in afghanistan to ramp up the fight against the taliban. the troop levels that increased in afghanistan under donald trump, january 2017, over 8080500, 11,500, 14,000, january 2018, 15,000 have been announced. that of a far cry from the 100,000 us troops when president obama ordered a surge of troops
think the u.s. military action against isis is going well. that is the most positive assessment since u.s. began air strikes in 2014. but just 42% approve of trump s handling of terror over all. so people are happy with isis fight. but not terrorism over all. why is that? well, part of it is we have had successful terrorist attacks in the united states since donald trump assumed office. not only from jihad terrorists, one struck in manhattan with a vehicle killing 8 people but also in charlottesville, virginia. so the fact is domestic terrorism continues to it be a problem. donald trump response to that is travel ban which i don t think really will have much effect, because the lethal terror attacks in the united states whether coming from jihadist were people in the united states already. almost invariably american
behind. shepard: talked about fighting terror in the middle eas east. stressed the importance of implementing u.n. resolutions, syrian war. all of this you were a white house reporter a long time. is this read-out the totality of the conversation or described the white house and what hey feel like the people need to know? it s the latter. doesn t tell us a lot. the important part is the context. this tells us that a few hours after president putin met with president assad met with him as the isis fight is dying down and people are looks at the future of syria and a lot of signs that russia has the influence here and the u.s. lost its leverage about how to ensure a future for syria that doesn t involve president assad. president putin has been working the phones with president trump and leaders of egypt and israel