Ivanka Trump influential in president’s decision to bomb Syria, officials say

President Donald Trump was influenced by his oldest daughter and presidential adviser Ivanka Trump in his decision to bomb a Syrian airbase after a deadly chemical attack last week, according to White House spokesman Sean Spicer and her brother, Eric Trump.

Ivanka Trump and others in the administration agreed that action was needed and told President Trump so, Spicer said Tuesday during his daily press briefing.

"There's no question that Ivanka and others weighed in to him," Spicer said.

There was widespread acknowledgment that the chemical attack was horrible and the U.S. needed to respond, he said.

Eric Trump told the British publication The Daily Telegraph the same thing that Ivanka Trump tweeted that she was "heartbroken and outraged" by the attack that killed as many as 80 people, including more than two dozen children, and that the U.S. airstrike was influenced in part by his sister.

“Ivanka is a mother of three kids, and she has influence,” Eric Trump said.

“I’m sure she said, ‘Listen, this is horrible stuff.’ My father will act in times like that.”

But Eric Trump said the president was also “deeply affected” by the images of children “being sprayed down by hoses to keep their skin from burning.”

“It was horrible,” he said.

“These guys are savages and I’m glad he responded the way he responded.”

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