President Trump offered a defense of his plan to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria.
Facing almost unprecedented criticism from members of his own party, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, over pulling U.S. troops from Syria, President Trump offered a rambling defense of his stunning reversal of long-standing American policy.
Trump reportedly settled on the move in a late-Sunday phone call with Turkish President Recep Erdogan, and by Monday morning there were reports that American soldiers were leaving their positions in Syria, while Turkey was launching a long-planned incursion into Syria to clear out Kurdish fighters, which analysts said could further destabilize the region.
“I can tell you that the two countries that are the most disappointed that we’re leaving are China and Russia, because they love that we’re bogged down and just watching and spending tremendous amounts of money, instead of continuing to build our forces. We have tremendous amounts of weapons under development now. We have weapons that no one can even believe, we’re going to be making some stops over the next four or five weeks, some we show, some we don’t show.
While Trump boasted that many in Washington supported his decision about Syria, few members of Congress — with the exceptions of Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. — rushed to his defense.
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