From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

Today, the accidental president of Syria,

how a man who was never meant to lead, became the man who outraged the United States government

with the brutality of his leadership.

And, why President Trump is rejecting that leader,

while embracing another Middle Eastern ruler with his own reputation for brutality.

It's Tuesday, April 11th.

When the government of Syria released the nerve gas seren last week,

choking dozens of its own civilians to death,

it violated an international arms agreement in an especially gruesome way.

That should just warn all our viewers that these are pretty difficult pictures to follow.

In the early hours of this morning, there were reports of chemical weapons that had been made.

Since 2011, when the Syrian Civil War erupted, hundreds of thousands of Syrians

have been killed, injured, arrested, and kidnapped,

triggering the refugee crisis that is reshaping the politics of countries around the world.

And the man at the center of that, of what has become the most notorious government in the region,

is Bashar al-Assad.

Well, this is, I mean, the biggest thing to remember about Bashar al-Assad is

this is not somebody who aspired to be a politician or was raised to be a politician

or really put much effort into becoming a politician before it was imposed on him by circumstance.

Ben Hubbard covers the Middle East and he's based in Beirut.

You know, Syria before him was ruled by his father,

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