President Donald Trump has heaped praise on Syria’s president, a former al Qaeda fighter, calling him an “attractive” and “tough guy.”
Speaking aboard Air Force One on his way to Qatar, Trump continued his charm offensive in the Middle East by speaking highly of President Ahmed al-Sharaa, 42, after the pair met earlier that day in Saudi Arabia.
“Young, attractive guy, tough guy. Strong past, very strong past—fighter,” Trump said. “He’s got a real shot at pulling it together.”
Trump met with Sharaa on Wednesday after announcing he would lift sanctions on Syria, which were originally imposed to pressure the since-overthrown Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Assad. It was the first time an American president had met a Syrian leader in 25 years; the previous was Bill Clinton, who met with Assad’s father Hafez al-Assad.
Sharaa formerly led the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which spearheaded the effort to oust Assad in Dec. 2024. The U.S., the European Union, and the United Nations all designate HTS as a terrorist organization.
Sharaa has urged the removal of the terrorist designation as he attempts to reshape Syria’s image following the brutal regime of his predecessor.
After taking power and declaring himself Syria’s president, Sharaa began wearing shirts and ties, rather than his usual military attire, in an effort to legitimize his leadership.
HTS was originally established in 2012 as the al-Nusra Front, which soon became the official Syrian affiliate of al Qaeda while fighting Assad. In 2016, the group rebranded as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and announced it was distancing itself from al Qaeda.
Sharaa, then known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, was slapped with a $10 million U.S. bounty in 2017 after being accused of multiple terrorist offenses during the Syrian civil war. The U.S. removed bounty soon after Sharaa took charge in Syria.
But his involvement in Islamic terrorism goes back to 2003 when he joined al Qaeda in Iraq to fight against U.S. troops in the aftermath of George W. Bush’s disastrous invasion.
In 2005, Sharaa was held at the U.S.-run detention center Camp Bucca. During his imprisonment, he met future ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who convinced him to go to Syria to set up what would become the al-Nusra Front. He later split from al-Baghdadi, who himself set up ISIS, presided over an horrific regime in parts of Syria and Iraq which beheaded hostages on social media, threw gay people to their deaths from roofs and sponsored terror attacks around the world.
Al-Baghdadi was finally killed by U.S. special forces in 2019 in Syria, close to ISIS’ former capital of Raqqah, in a raid which Trump watched from the White House situation room.
During his meeting with Sharaa on Wednesday, Trump urged Syria to normalize ties with Israel by signing the Abraham Accords.
The landmark deal, which Trump helped broker during his first term, was originally signed between Israel, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates in Sept. 2020 as part of efforts to normalize relations and reduce tensions in the Middle East between Arab countries and Israel.
Trump also called for “all foreign terrorists” to leave Syria, the deportation of “Palestinian terrorists,” assistance in stopping the “resurgence” of ISIS, and for Syria to “assume responsibility for ISIS detention centers in Northeast Syria,” according to a readout from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Trump will appear in Doha, Qatar, next as part of his four-day diplomatic tour, where the issue of his gifted $400 million jet from the country’s royal family is expected to take center stage.
