After having just re-gained control over my own negatively calibrated confirmation bias and thus again joined the universe of the objective, another option concerning Trump's highly surprising lightning manoeuvre has popped up in the mind of yours truly. I will put it metaphorically for easy consumption:
Trump stands alone in a prairie cabin with a pack of wolves [the deep state] tearing at the door. The wooden planks have begun to give and snouts and saliva dripping teeth are starting to come through them. Trump goes to the fridge, pulls out a big roast, then goes to the window, opens it and hurls it out in the yard to distract the wolves. It works. They react as pr. their predatory nature and toss themselves at the roast. This now gives Trump an opportunity to pull the bookshelf across the floor in order to place it in front of the door which buys him more time for his own project.
The deception game is not a single player game. There are more players at the table and it's definitely a possibility that a lightning deflecting manoeuvre is what we're looking at. Just as the deep state can lead the masses into a parallel reality with lies and deception to mentally disarm us and thus keep us from counter-reacting against itself and its own despotic collectivist ambition with the world, it itself can be exposed to the same practice. Now, the deep state pigs can no longer claim that Trump is in Putin's pocket and he has also managed to send a signal to all parties at the geopolitical round table that he's fully prepared to act alone, large-scale without preceding congressional approval. It signals an unpredictability to the other players that by basic psychological theory should lead to a mentality of caution in the other parties (read: especially North Korea and China) provided that the leaderships of these countries are themselves rationally, sanely geared (this is where North Korea is the joker in the game). Trump did meet with the official Chinese leadership in the US on the same day the attack was launched. He even supposedly made them wait an hour because of his "military engagement" in Syria
The Tomahawk stunt we saw in Syria may very well just be an agreed deceptive play by Trump, Putin and Assad in a larger geopolitical theatre actually focusing on an entirely different region going forward, far-east Asia.
The "use of chemical weapons against civilians"-card is also SUCH a stupid and hopelessly burned-out card to still believe to be working in PR world, that Trump can't possibly believe that the world will buy it again-again-again. The exact same card was played against Assad in 2013 and shot down as a classic false flag and Trump damn well knows this! Assad also has no incentive to use them, quite the opposite in fact.
The plausibility of the above described scenario is significant and I estimate the odds of it as being true as fair and will therefore await further action before a final decision is made about the man.
I see it in more simplistic, typical Trump terms: By not only doing this, but doing it while dining with the Chinese Premier, Trump sent very strong "don't mess with the USA" messages to China, North Korea and, of course, Mr. Assad & Mr. Putin. I would not be the least surprised to see Trump send another, stronger, message to Kim Jung Fatboy.
This is also basically what I wrote... I'm sure this was timed with both Assad and Putin to redirect Saurons eye away from the region onto far-east Asia instead. The Russians were duly warned an our before the strike and why would the Russians not warn Assad if they suddenly knew what was coming? The deep state got tricked.