Trump, touting gains over IS, focuses on Syria exit
Speaking to diplomats attending a ministerial meeting of the 79-member Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS today, President Trump said a formal announcement would come next week that 100% of the terror group's territory had been liberated.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, addressing diplomats from some 70 countries at the State Department today, said he expected a formal announcement on the territorial defeat of the so-called Islamic State, IS or ISIS, possibly as early as next week.
“It should be formally announced sometime probably next week that we will have [liberated] 100% of the caliphate,” Trump told diplomats attending a ministerial meeting of the 79-member Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. “You can’t do better than we’ve done, militarily.”
While US officials have scrambled to reassure partners and allies that US commitment to the goals of fighting terrorism and countering Iran haven’t changed since Trump’s surprise announcement in December of a US withdrawal from Syria, Trump’s message remains firmly focused on extracting the United States from the long wars he inherited.
“Great nations do not fight endless wars,” Trump said in his State of the Union address Tuesday.
