Palm Beach, Florida (CNN) Two days after footage of a grisly chemical weapons attack on civilians made its way around the world, President Donald Trump decided to launch a military strike against the Syrian regime responsible for the horrific attack. But while the decision to strike Syrian government targets marked a sharp reversal in the President's stance on Syria -- one that called for a laser-like focus on ISIS and largely ignoring Assad -- the sharp, 180-degree turn didn't happen over a matter of days. 'Holocaust' Months earlier, during an off-the-record holiday gathering with reporters at his opulent Mar-a-Lago estate a week before Christmas, Trump spoke at length about the carnage of the Syrian civil war, revealing that the issue was weighing on him as he prepared to take office. Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks authorized CNN on Friday to report the contents of his remarks on the topic at the gathering, which CNN attended.Trump ordered a strike against Syria ThursdayTrump said that the chemical weapons attack "crossed a lot of lines for me"
He described the slaughter of civilians in _ as a "holocaust," and remarked on the "high pain threshold" of the population there. Trump also described in detail a video he had seen of an elderly woman being shot multiple times in _, struggling as she tried to continue to walk. "I would not in any way attempt to extrapolate that to a change in our policy or posture relative to our military activities in _ today.