Former President Carter in a new interview urged President Trump not to “exacerbate” current situations with North Korea, Russia or Syria.
“I pray that he would keep our country at peace and not exaggerate or exacerbate the challenges that come up with North Korea, in Russia or in Syria,” Carter said in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press.
{mosads}“I hope he realizes very profoundly as I did, and as other presidents have done, that any nuclear exchange could involve catastrophe for all human beings,” he continued.
Trump took to Twitter Wednesday to warn Russia, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad in that country’s years-long civil war, to “get ready” because American missiles “will be coming nice and new and ‘smart.'”
The remark reportedly alarmed officials in the Trump administration, who had been working with U.S. allies in crafting a joint response to an apparent chemical weapons attack in Syria last weekend that killed 40 people.
On Thursday morning, Trump tweeted that he “never said when an attack on Syria would take place.”
“Could be very soon or not so soon at all!” he said.
“In any event, the United States, under my Administration, has done a great job of ridding the region of ISIS. Where is our ‘Thank you America?'”
Trump said Thursday morning he will decide “fairly soon” how to respond to the apparent chemical weapons attack in Syria.
“Now we have to make some further decisions, so they’ll be made fairly soon,” the president told reporters at the White House.
The comments make it clear that despite promising a missile strike against Syria 24 hours ago, no decisions have been made yet on a U.S. response.
Carter has in the past been critical of Trump. During the interview with the AP, he also said that a lot of people have “lost faith in the superiority of democracy.”