Trump won't tell America what his Syria policy is, but will he tell Putin?

Impact

President Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he wasn't going to make his Syria policy public. On Thursday, Vladimir Putin's government essentially told him that answer wasn't good enough.

"Russia's approach to [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad] is clear," ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told CNN. "He is the legal president of an independent state. What is the U.S. approach?" 

Prior to this week's chemical weapons attack, Trump had repeatedly signaled that he was not interested in efforts to topple Assad and wanted to work with the Russian government in the region to fight ISIS. But on Wednesday, Trump said that his attitude toward Syria had "changed very much."

"I'm not saying I'm doing anything one way or the other, but I'm certainly not going to be telling you," Trump told reporters on Tuesday.

Uncredited/AP

Since the release of the infamous dossier alleging Russia has compromising material about Trump, and the revelation that the FBI is investigating potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, many have speculated about Trump's alignment with Russia on the issue of Syria.

In a New York Times interview released Thursday, Trump declined to criticize Russia's role in abetting Syria, saying only that he found everything "very disappointing."

"Well, I think it's very disappointing. I think it's very disappointing." Trump said when asked by the Times about Russia's support for Assad. "Now this was done by — the information is, this was done by Syria purely. But anybody aligned with Syria — this is very disappointing."

Now the country that Trump refuses to criticize is calling on him to explain his new approach to Syria, and the world awaits his response.