Trump speaks on ‘discussing’ murder of Syria President Assad

US President Donald Trump has refuted a claim that he discussed the assassination of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.

The claim is contained in a new book by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward.

“That was never even contemplated,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday in the Oval Office as he met with the Emir of Kuwait.

In his new book “Fear: Trump in the White House,” Woodward alleges that the president told Defense Secretary Jim Mattis that he wanted to have Assad killed after he carried out a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017.

“Let’s fucking kill him! Let’s go in. Let’s kill the fucking lot of them,” Woodward quotes Trump as saying.

He writes that Mattis told the president he would “get right on it” but then came back later with plans for a more limited air strike.

Trump and White House aides insist the book was full of “made up stories”.

In a tweet, the president wondered why Congress doesn’t change the laws on libel.

“The book means nothing. It’s a work of fiction,” Trump said, adding that Mattis and White House chief of staff John Kelly had both issued statements rejecting the account.