President Donald Trump will direct Defense Secretary James Mattis on Friday to outline a strategy that more aggressively attacks the Islamic State in Syria, according to White House officials.
Trump, who is visiting the Pentagon for the first time as president Friday, will call on Mattis to present new options within 30 days, the New York Times reported.
Officials said the plan could include deploying U.S. artillery on the ground in Syria and Army attack helicopters to assist in the offensive to retake Raqqa, the de facto capital of ISIS.
Trump has repeatedly called for a more forceful strategy to take on ISIS in Iraq and Syria that would include "bombing the shit" out of the terrorist group. The president previously touted a secret plan to defeat ISIS during the election, though he also said he would defer to "the generals" to devise a new strategy.
Mattis will be tasked with leading the new plan, which will center largely on driving militants from Raqqa and Mosul.
While at the Pentagon, Trump will conduct a ceremonial swearing-in of Mattis as defense secretary.
The president doubled down on his forceful rhetoric against ISIS jihadists in an interview Thursday, calling them "sneaky, dirty rats."
"We have evil that lurks around the corner without the uniforms," he told Fox News. "They're sneaky, dirty rats and they blow people up in a shopping center and they blow people up in a church."