Column | Compass

How to Convince a Reluctant Trump to Get Involved in a Liberated Syria

The president-elect once derided Syria as “sand and death.”

An opposition fighter fires on his AK-47, as he celebrates the take over of the city in Damascus, Syria, on Dec. 8, 2024. | Hussein Malla/AP

By Nahal Toosi

12/08/2024 11:59 AM EST

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MANAMA, Bahrain — Hours before the Syrian regime collapsed, a Saudi royal took the stage in a glittering ballroom here and called on President-elect Donald Trump to rescue the war-weary Middle East.

“American leadership matters for the whole world,” Prince Turki Al-Faisal, a former ambassador in Washington, said during the IISS Manama Dialogue. “It is time for America, under your presidency, to change the course of this troubled region.”

Maybe the prince was trying to boost the ego of a self-obsessed politician, a man whose famous quotes include “I alone can fix it.”

The prince’s plea to Trump reflected, among other things, a longing for calm in a region struggling with disarray — most recently on Sunday morning as rebels ousted Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad amid a lightning advance.

But based on my conversations with half a dozen people in Trump’s orbit and others who’ve worked for him, telling the incoming president that America should take the lead on some global issue is more likely to annoy than persuade him. It might even backfire.

The better approach? Show him what you’re doing for the United States, especially if you’re investing in the American economy; lay out your plan to solve the latest crisis; and assure him that you’re willing to take the lead. Then, maybe, he might help you.

It’s not what America can do for you, but what you can do for America — if not Trump himself.

It is “critically important” that world leaders understand this, one former Trump administration official told me.

This approach appeals to the transactionalism Trump is so known for and his desire not to get snookered. It is especially worth remembering if you’re an Arab or Middle Eastern leader now dealing with fallout from the astonishing developments in Syria.

The quick unseating of Assad — who ruled Syria for nearly a quarter century — injects massive uncertainty into the future of this region.

When I landed in this chic capital,........

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