First off, Trump sent a message to a lot of people in North Korea, Iraq, Turkey, China, Iran, Russia, Afghanistan and a multitude of places that desperately needed to get the message bad behavior produces bad consequences swiftly and in a big way .
The message was sent cheaply and with little downside risk to America.
Russia, Syria and Iran just got a big attitude adjustment
Last week, Trump took a big risk to reverse American policy when he offered Assad peace and Russia normalized status if they both would work with the United States to bring down Iran in the region.
Russia is obviously helping arm Iran and helping them to acquire a nuclear weapons and ballistic missile capability.
Both Assad and Putin are facilitating Iranian hegemony in Iraq and rest of the the region.Iranian Revolutionary Guards are propping up Assad and using Syria as a safe haven and staging ground for operations in Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and especially in Lebanon as it takes over the and militarizes the border with missiles and heavy weapons for use against Israel, as well as Iranian infiltration
in the Gaza.
Both Assad and Putin were not very receptive to Trumps overture of leaving Assad in peace in Syria and normalizing Russian relations in exchange for throwing Iran under the bus.
Iran's propping up of Assad does not come for free and much of the price is Syrian aggression against Israel, both with Syrian and Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah assets.
As the ISIS threat winds down, Iran and Syria have been involved in a major arms build up (especially missiles and anti tank weapons) in Syria with an ultimate goal of using them against Israel. For it's part, Syria has been engaging with an unusual and alarming amount of saber rattling and demonization against Israel in Syrian media.
This arms buildup and increasing aggressive posture by Syria/Iran has Israel very worried and Israel has actually been taking the risks of carrying out air strikes and raids on the areas where the military build up is taking place.
At the same time , Russia is upgrading the Syrian air defense capability with it's newest and most dangerous surface to air missile systems and networks.
In one fell swoop, Trump just sent a very blunt message to potential adversaries around the world to knock off their Obama era BS and straighten up their collective acts
For their part, I'm sure Trumps generous offer to Syria and Russia will look a whole lot more attractive to them after the cruise missile attacks.
Both Putin and Assad may reconsider their involvement with Iran in light of new realities on the ground. Now that Trump has Assad and Putin's attention, Sec of State Tillerson’s negotiations to marginalize Iran and North Korea may proceed in a smoother and more expedited fashion.
Questions about Trumps sympathy to Russia are now pretty much put to rest.
Trumps cruise missiles were no doubt targeting some of the weapons Syria and Iran were stockpiling for use against Israel, perhaps using intel and coordinates provided by Israel at last weeks meeting with the American Delegation to Israel
This will have the beneficial effect of thinning out the Iranian weapons build up in Syria intended to attack Israel at a time when world public opinion is virtually demanding that Trump punish Assad for the purported gas attack.
The rest of the world is fully aware that the gas attack was not done by Assad, but they are even more aware that Trump is unpredictable and ruthless enough to use a fake story about Assad's WMD attack as cover to inflict some pain to get the attention of incorrigible members of the axis of evil.
Not a bad days work for President Trump, and one full of win.
You have no idea what Trump knows and doesn’t know.
But you’re right that through this action he sent a strong message to the world’s tyrants thereby setting himself up as the leader of the free world.