From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Potomac Watch.

Welcome to Potomac Watch. I'm Kate O'Dell, and today we'll be talking about Donald Trump and how he's shaking up things in the whole wide world.

First, we'll start with this week's Washington visit by Syrian President Ahmad al-Shara.

It was the first time a Syrian president has visited the White House.

President Trump said he wants to see Syria become a successful, stable country in the Middle East.

Today, we'll parse the implications of that visit and talk a little bit more about how this fits into Trump's larger effort to reshape the Middle East. Then, and we will

take a quick mental flight over to Eastern Europe. We'll check in on the war in eastern Ukraine.

Are the Russians making progress on the battlefield? And what is the state of U.S. negotiations to end the war?

First, I'm joined by my colleague Elliot Kaufman, member of the editorial

board, and later we'll chat with Jillian K. Melcher, another member of the journal's editorial board.

Elliot, welcome to the show. First, let's take a listen to what Donald Trump had to say earlier this week

when Syrian President Ahmed al-Shara visited the White House.

He's a very strong leader.

He comes from a very tough place and he's a tough guy.

I like them. I get along with him, the president, the new president in Syria.

And we'll do everything we can to make Syria successful because that's part of the Middle East.

We have peace now in the Middle East, first time that anyone can remember that ever happening.

And as you know, Syria is a very big part of the Middle East, very important part.

If you look back at Syria for years, they had the doctors, the lawyers, they had so many of the great intellects.

It's an amazing place with great people.

And we want to see Syria be successful along with the rest of the Middle East.

So I have confidence that he'll be able to do the job, absolutely.

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