Trump’s Syria Policy: A New Low in Western Cynicism

The Trump administration didn’t lift sanctions out of concern for starving Syrian children. It did so to facilitate Julani’s cooperation with Israeli and American demands

There’s something viscerally wrong about watching President Donald Trump—a man once cheered for his supposed “anti-war” instincts—quietly lift U.S. sanctions on known war criminals and extremist factions in Syria. No fanfare. No press conference. Just the quiet normalization of a man like Abu Mohammad al-Julani, a former al-Qaeda affiliate, now rebranded as the “leader” of Syria’s new regime. This, we are told, is how America supports peace.

It’s not peace. It’s a Faustian bargain. And Syrians—especially the minorities, the Christians, the Alawites, and the secularists—will pay the price.

Let’s break through the propaganda. The Trump administration didn’t lift sanctions out of concern for starving Syrian children. It did so to facilitate Julani’s cooperation with Israeli and American demands: normalize ties with Israel, kick out Palestinian factions, and pretend the past decade of chaos was all part of Syria’s inevitable “transition.”

And for what? The man who once had a $10 million bounty on his head for leading a jihadist faction now wears a Western suit and gets nods of approval from Foggy Bottom. It’s an insult to memory, to victims, to any notion of justice. And it’s being sold to Americans under the banner of “supporting stability.”

Make no mistake: This is not a change of heart. This is not a moral reckoning. This is geopolitics at its ugliest—where convenience dictates morality, and terrorism is fine as long as the terrorists serve the right master.

The Alawite massacres that occurred in March weren’t unfortunate collateral damage. They were premeditated, systematic, and sectarian. Reuters confirmed over 1,500 Alawite civilians were killed in 72 hours. Women raped. Children executed. Entire villages razed. These weren’t crimes of passion. These were crimes of ideology. And they were carried out by factions that now sit at the negotiating table with Washington’s blessing.

The absurdity doesn’t stop there. Trump's administration also delisted two warlords—Abu Hamsha and Sayf Abu Bakr—both accused of kidnapping, extortion, sexual violence, and a central role in a massacre of over 1,500 Alawites. The U.S. Treasury detailed these crimes. Then Trump’s pen made them disappear.

Where’s the outrage? Where are the congressional hearings? Where are the think tank panels?

Meanwhile, in the U.S., MAGA talking heads are melting down over a possible liberal Muslim mayor in New York. They call it “the fall of the West,” liken it to 9/11, and scream about the LGBTQ agenda. But when Trump normalizes a literal former al-Qaeda emir and lifts sanctions on warlords who decapitated Christians and sold women into slavery—crickets.

It’s a cult. A nationalist cosplay movement that can’t see beyond its own navel.

The hypocrisy doesn’t end there. Western media continues to pedal the nonsense that Syria’s diversity is being preserved. In reality, Christians are being hunted. Their churches bombed. Their statues desecrated. Their women taken as sex slaves. The Julani regime has brought Afghanistan to Syria.

Thirteen thousand mosques exist in Syria. But now, under this “new government,” we must perform state-sponsored prayers in the middle of the street—not out of piety, but to demonstrate dominance. Religious display as political submission. We’ve seen this before—in Taliban-ruled Kabul.

The more you scratch beneath the surface, the clearer the project becomes. Erase Syria’s secular identity. Cleanse the minorities. Pave the way for a docile, compliant, ultra-religious vassal state. A client regime that “makes peace” with Israel, expels the Palestinians, and plays ball with Turkey, Qatar, and Washington.

And Europe? Oh, the EU is busy delivering moralistic speeches calling for “inclusion” and “diversity,” all while Europe closes its doors to Syrian Christian refugees. You can’t make this up.

So let me ask: if this is the new world order—where terrorists wear suits, journalists are deplatformed for telling the truth, and Washington builds regimes on the corpses of ethnic minorities—then what exactly are we preserving?

Not democracy. Not dignity. Not peace.

Just power.

A friend of mine, an Afghan by birth, told me recently: “You haven’t learned anything from us.” He’s right. The same playbook that destroyed Kabul is being run in Damascus. The same Western arrogance that trained mujahideen in the ‘80s is now dressing up war criminals in ties and calling them “reformers.”

This isn’t just betrayal. It’s complicity.

And the blowback is coming.

Because Syria isn’t an island. It borders Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan. And when the terrorist haven you’ve created begins to overflow, you’ll remember this moment. When you sold Syria for gas deals, normalized genocidaires, and told the world it was for “stability.”

Please don’t say we didn’t warn you.

—Kevork Almassian is a Syrian journalist, geopolitical analyst, and the founder of Syriana Analysis.