Syria: Donald Trump doesn’t want to get involved, Joe Biden does

The United States of America should stay out of the change of power in Syria – that is what US President-elect Donald Trump wants. “This is not our fight,” the 78-year-old said on Truth Social over the weekend, hours before Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad fled towards Moscow.

The days of the United States determining who should govern certain countries in the Middle East are long gone. Trump was elected in 2016 and 2024 to keep it that way. The future president now hopes that a weakened Russia, which has long supported Assad, will be ready to end the war in Ukraine more quickly. What exactly will happen politically in Syria is more of a side issue for him. The main thing is peace in the Middle East and Eastern Europe – that is his maxim.

But things may not go as quickly and smoothly as he hopes. What’s more: the future president and the incumbent probably have different views on the role of the USA. Donald Trump doesn’t want to get involved, Joe Biden does.

When the US President appeared in front of the cameras in the White House on Sunday afternoon, he viewed the fall of Assad as an indirect success for himself and his politics. “For the first time, neither Russia nor Iran nor Hezbollah could defend this vile regime in Syria,” Biden said. A combination of sanctions, the American military presence in Syria to combat IS, and support for Israeli military operations against Iran’s proxies have shifted the balance of power in the region.

The US currently has around 900 soldiers stationed in Syria, working with Kurdish allies in the northeast to prevent the Islamic State from resurgent. Biden wants to keep the troops there and said that US forces carried out dozens of “precision air strikes” on ISIS camps and operations on Sunday.

The incumbent president also has no interest in a major intervention in the country. Biden wants to ensure stability, as far as possible. At the moment it is completely unclear who will rule Syria in the future. Muhammad al-Jolani, head of the Islamist HTS militia and leader of the rebels, is listed as a terrorist in the USA. What happens if even more radical jihadists come to power? Even Trump probably has no interest in it.

And Biden will still be in power until January 20th. “We will remain vigilant,” said the incumbent. “Make no mistake, some of the rebel groups that toppled Assad have their own dismal record of terrorism and human rights abuses.”

But the future president is hoping for a different scenario. Trump is unlikely to believe that Syria will simply become a haven of stability. But as long as the state does not completely collapse or become a new power base for IS, what happens politically in the civil war country should not be so important to him.

Rather, Trump hopes that the overthrow of Assad will create the opportunity to quickly end the war in Ukraine. Russia has “lost all interest in Syria because nearly 600,000 Russian soldiers have been wounded or killed in Ukraine, in a war that should never have started and could last forever,” Trump said. Russia and Iran are weakened, one country because of Ukraine and the poor economic situation, the other because of Israel and its fighting successes. “I know Vladimir well. Now it’s time for him to act. China can help. The world is waiting!”

In fact, the fall of Assad is an embarrassment for Putin. But will that really motivate him to end the war in Ukraine more quickly? Or does the Russian president now really need a success there so as not to appear as a weak leader?

This idea has not yet appeared in Donald Trump’s planning.