After Boasting He Would Bring Troops ‘Home,’ Donald Trump Now Planning To Leave Hundreds In Syria, Report Says
Early on Sunday, Donald Trump repeated a claim he had made on previous occasions, taking to Twitter to announced that he was, he claimed, “Bringing soldiers home!” In the tweet, according to The Hill, Trump was referring to Unites States troops in Syria — troops he ordered to be pulled back from the Syrian-Turkish border on October 6, to make way for Turkey’s military offensive against Kurdish people living in Northeast Syria.
However, as The Inquisitr reported, the troops who were ordered to be pulled from the border region would not be coming home at all. According to a statement by Defense Secretary Mark Esper, those troops redeploying two western Iraq — a statement that directly contradicted Trump’s claim made on Wednesday that he ordered the troop withdrawal because “it’s time to bring our soldiers back home.”
But according to a New York Times report published late on Sunday, there is even more emerging evidence that Trump’s claim to be “bringing our soldiers back home” is largely untrue.
According to the Times report, Trump now favors a plan to keep “a small contingent of American troops in eastern Syria,” to supposedly guard against advances into the territory by Syrian government and Russian troops, as well as by resurgent units of fighters affiliated with the Islamic State terrorist group.
After saying American troops shouldn't be at the center of conflicts around the world, Trump shouts: "Bring our soldiers home!"
Trump just sent 1800 of our soldiers to Saudi Arabia. pic.twitter.com/WYhbdh5Rtr
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) October 18, 2019
In addition, Trump and the Defense Department announced earlier this week that an additional 1,800 U.S. troops would now be sent to Saudi Arabia, according to a Politico report, meaning that far from bringing U.S. troops home from the Middle East, Trump is increasing the number of American service members deployed there.
On October 10, Trump falsely claimed that all U.S. troops had been withdrawn from Syria, according to the Politico report, a claim clearly contradicted by the New York Times reporting on Sunday — as well as by the Politico report which said that 1,000 troops remained in Syria.
If Trump approves the plan to keep troops in Syria, it would mark the second time this weekend that he has flip-flopped on a major decision. After Trump on Saturday did an about-face on his announcement of a plan to host the 2020 G7 summit meeting at his own property, at the Trump National Doral golf resort outside of Miami, Florida, as The Inquisitr reported.
The planned reversal would also be “the second time in 10 months that (Trump) has reversed his order to pull out nearly all American troops” from Syria, The New York Times reported, after Trump made a sudden announcement in December that he would immediately pull all U.S. troops from that country. That decision reportedly led to the resignation of then-Defense Secretary James Mattis, but under pressure from military commanders, Trump changed his mind.
