Esper says he believes Trump will not intervene in Syria: ‘We should take him at his word’

Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Sunday that he believes President-elect Trump will not intervene in Syria.

“Donald Trump is always consistent, if there's one thing, that he did not wanna get involved in war. So, I think we should take him at his word on that,” Esper told anchor Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.” 

Early Sunday, the Syrian government fell following the entrance of rebels into the capital of Damascus. The fall of the government marked the end of a 50-year rule of the Assad family in Syria.

The Assad regime’s end came after a 10-day offensive by rebels during which fighters made their way quickly across Syria and took large portions of what had been government-held land.

On Saturday, Trump weighed in on what was happening in Syria, saying that the country “is a mess, but is not our friend, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!”

Trump also criticized Syrian rebels for their action to take over the country’s capital on Saturday, saying that “Russia, because they are so tied up in Ukraine, and with the loss there of over 600,000 soldiers, seems incapable of stopping this literal march through Syria, a country they have protected for years.”

“That said, we do have a lot of interests in the region, in Syria. I mentioned earlier, you know, … what will this mean for Russia and its foothold in the Middle East?” Esper said on “State of the Union.”

“What about Iran?” he added. “We, of course, have our NATO ally, Turkey, in the north. We have our partners, the Kurds, who will be, who will be — continued friction with the Turks. We have Arab partners, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, that border Syria. There's a lot of U.S. interest here.”

The Hill has reached out to the Trump transition team for comment.