Al-Baghdadi’s death comes at the perfect time for Donald Trump

When President Donald Trump speaks at a press conference later today we can be sure he will be milking, for all it is worth, the presumed killing of Isis leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi during a raid on his compound in north-western Syria by US special forces. Trump is said to have authorised the operation last week, and multiple news outlets have confirmed that Al-Baghdadi is presumed dead.

For the first time since Trump bombed Syria over President Bashar Al-Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons against his own people, the US media, and political allies and foes alike, will be celebrating an obvious foreign policy triumph. For his detractors, it is only by bombing a foreign country or killing a major terrorist that Trump can look – as Fareed Zakaria famously said after the Syria cruise missile strikes – ‘presidential’.

Crucially, fear of terrorism ranks far higher among Trump’s core base than it does among Americans generally, and we can be sure that right up until next year’s election day he will try to reap the political capital of this successful raid.