President Donald Trump is acting like a "drunken sailor" and "making it up as he goes along" with regard to Syria, House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., said Monday.
Smith spoke with CNN addressing Syria and National Security Adviser John Bolton's announcement the U.S. will not immediately withdraw from Syria as Trump announced in December.
"This is very similar to the border wall issue," the congressman said. "It shows that our president literally doesn't know what he's doing. He is making it up as he goes along based on the whims of, I guess, what he sees on Fox News, or what his mood is."
"He's changing course like a drunken sailor, OK? There's no thought behind it," Smith added. "What we need is actually rational policy in Syria [and] on border security. All we have is the emotional rantings of a child, all right? And he goes back and forth depending on what the last person said to him."
He also described Trump's habit of "operating on the whims of his emotions" as "disastrous" and said it is "ultimately" the reason for former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis' departure.
"It wasn't just the decisions, it was the way the president made them, you know, like a 4-year-old," Smith said.
"At some point he's going to have to take a briefing, he's going to have to read a book, he's going to have to understand what is going on in the world, instead of just making it up as he goes along," he said. "Because we're all going to pay a horrible price for it."
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