Trump slams Putin for backing ‘truly evil’ al-Assad

Donald Trump has criticised Vladimir Putin for backing “a truly evil person”, as he defended his cruise missile strike on a Syrian airbase.

The President said Mr Putin’s support for Syrian President Bashar al Assad was “very bad for Russia” and “very bad for mankind”, adding that without it “you wouldn’t have a problem right now”.

Labelling Assad “an animal”, Mr Trump said graphic images of children dying after a nerve gas attack widely blamed on the Syrian President moved him to launch a missile strike in retaliation.

His comments came as Russia accused the US of “primitive and loutish” rhetoric over Syria – minutes before talks began between their top diplomats.

“I really think there is going to be a lot of pressure on Russia to make sure that peace happens because frankly if Russia hadn’t have gone in and backed this animal you wouldn’t have a problem right now,” Mr Trump told Fox Business.

“When I looked at the pictures … you see these beautiful children dead in their fathers’ arms or you see children grasping for life and you know it is over for them.

“I immediately called General (James) Mattis and said ‘what can we do?’

“They came back to me with a number of different alternatives and we hit them very hard.”

The President said he would not commit troops to Syria, but claimed his predecessor Barack Obama should have taken a harder line on Syria.

He said: “What I did should have been done by the Obama administration a long time before I did it.

“I think Syria would be a lot better off right now than it has been.”

On Tuesday, Mr Trump’s spokesperson Sean Spicer faced calls to be sacked when he compared Assad to Adolf Hitler, telling reporters the Nazi leader “didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons”.

Millions of Jews were killed in concentration camp gas chambers during the Holocaust.

Mr Spicer has since issued an apology and admitted he made a mistake by suggesting Hitler did not use chemical weapons.

He said: “I was trying to describe the attack on his own people – the use of chemical weapons.

“I mistakenly made an inappropriate and insensitive reference to the Holocaust for which, frankly, there’s no comparison.”

Mr Spicer added he had learned to “think before you speak”.