"No child of God should ever suffer such horror," Trump said emotionally Thursday night after he ordered a cruise missile attack on a Syrian airfield in response to a poison gas bomb that killed dozens of civilians, including children, and left dozens more writhing in pain.

This was the week a reality-TV presidency faced cold reality.

The fast-moving Syrian crisis combined with escalating U.S. concerns about North Korea's ballistic missile tests and nuclear capability, even as Trump held back-to-back summits with three visiting foreign leaders, including China's president.

Those urgent demands consumed much of Trump's attention while other White House problems continued to simmer.

A new push to repeal and replace Obamacare was on life support in Congress, the scandal over Russian meddling in the election claimed another GOP scalp, and his White House again descended into a cacophony of West Wing intrigue and infighting.