President Donald Trump on Friday defended himself amid criticism for his order to withdraw troops from Syria, saying he has “done more damage to ISIS than all recent presidents.”
Trump announced on Wednesday that “we have won against ISIS,” and that the 2,000 U.S. troops are “all coming back.”
On Friday, he tweeted: “I’ve done more damage to ISIS than all recent presidents....not even close!”
The decision, which caused Secretary of Defense James Mattis to announce his resignation, was met with criticism from many of the president’s supporters, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade, who said Trump had “re-founded ISIS” and that “leaving is helping,” on Friday.
“We are now abandoning the Kurds who are about three weeks away from total slaughter,” he said. “All they have done for us is show total allegiance to us and they trusted us, and now we will never get another ally in that region.”