Presidents Trump and Reagan: Syria and Libya

Like President Reagan, President Trump chose a high-result, low-risk strategy that allowed America to re-establish its global leadership.

by Newt Gingrich
April 9, 2017

There are some fascinating parallels between President Trump’s decisive but low-key military response to the Syrian chemical attack and President Reagan’s equally decisive but low-key response to provocation by Libya in 1981.

In both cases a conservative Republican had replaced a weak liberal Democrat.

In both cases the liberal Democrat had talked a lot about moral power and key values but had been very unwilling to use the military. In both cases the military was left underfunded, under strength and undercapitalized so the incoming president had to advocate for a substantial military build-up.