Donald Trump
Donald TrumpReuters

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said in an interview with Fox Business that the US will not go into Syria, despite the US' recent attack in retaliation for Syria's use of chemical weapons.

"We're not going into Syria," Trump said in the interview. "Our policy is the same — it hasn’t changed. We’re not going into Syria.

"Our big mission is getting rid of ISIS. That’s where it’s always been. But when I see people using horrible, horrible chemical weapons, which they agreed not to use under the Obama administration, but they violated it.

"I mean even some of the worst tyrants in the world didn't use the kind of gases that they used. And some of the gases are unbelievably potent.

"So when I saw that, I said we have to do something.

"It’s very tough to give that final go-ahead when you know you’re talking about human life. We went back and forth, and also back and forth about severity. We could have gone bigger in terms of targets and more of them, but we thought this would be the appropriate first shot.

"We hope he won’t do any more gassing."

Regarding Russia, Trump said, "We’re not exactly on the same wavelength with Russia, to put it mildly. Putin must see what a barbarian this guy is, and it’s a very bad symbol for Russia with this guy gassing children and using barrel bombs."

Trump also spoke about US taxes and healthcare.

"Health care is going to happen at some point," the president said. "Now, if it doesn't happen fast enough I'll start the taxes, but the tax reform and the tax cuts are better if I can do health care first."