President Trump reiterated his anti-war stance to rousing cheers at his official 2020 campaign kick-off event Tuesday night in Orlando, Florida.
“We’re charting a path to peace and stability in the Middle East, because great nations do not want to fight endless wars,” he said. “They’ve been going on forever. Starting to remove a lot of troops.”
Trump in 2016 pledged to wind down the wars in Afghanistan and Syria. Since then, his administration has engaged in peace negotiations with the Taliban, which are ongoing as U.S. troops continue training and advising Afghan forces.
Trump announced he would bring home all approximately 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria earlier this year. He later, upon the advice of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) decided to keep a small contingent of about 400 U.S. troops in Syria.
The Trump administration also orchestrated the end of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)’s caliphate. Soon after taking office, Trump tasked then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to come up with a new ISIS strategy.
The strategy, which consisted of empowering lower-level commanders and letting them get closer to battlefield, succeeded in destroying the ISIS caliphate in Iraq in 2017, and in Syria in 2019.
Trump has also tasked adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner to negotiate a peace agreement between Israel and Palestinians, which he is due to unveil sometime this month.
His administration is also employing a “maximum pressure” campaign to get Iran back to the negotiating table to negotiate a tougher deal on its nuclear program.