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Trump Gaggles with Press Before Departing the White House, Dec. 13, 2025

December 13, 2025 · The White House · 0:01:07

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

President Donald Trump spoke briefly with reporters before departing the White House on December 13, 2025, about the ISIS ambush in Syria that killed three Americans that day. “We mourn the loss of three great patriots in Syria. You know how it happened. It was an ambush. Terrible. We also have three wounded. They seem to be doing pretty well,” he said. “Syria, by the way, was fighting along with us. The president, the new president of Syria, as they told me — and I’m not surprised — he’s devastated by what happened. This was an ISIS attack on us and Syria.”

Asked whether the United States would retaliate against ISIS, the President answered: “Yeah, we will.”

Why it matters

This is the President’s first on-camera word on the Syria ambush — the mourning, the attribution to ISIS alone, and an explicit retaliation commitment made within hours of the attack. This chronicle files it on the Foreign Policy & Defense hub.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the President’s on-record commitment that the United States will retaliate against ISIS for the December 13 ambush is a dated, checkable commitment as stated. Noted for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Gaggles with Press Before Departing the White House, Dec. 13, 2025,” The White House, December 13, 2025 (official upload, embedded above). All characterizations as stated by the President in the gaggle.