President Donald Trump, while campaigning and soon after taking office, made several promises to keep America safe and fight terrorism head on.
This report covers Breitbart News’ first 100 days scorecard on the pledge Trump made to combat terrorism.
While he has kept most of his promises, a few undertakings still linger unaccomplished.
As Breitbart News’ Kristina Wong reported this week, experts, such as retired Army Lt. Gen. Thomas Spoehr from the Heritage Foundation, believe President Trump is making good on his promise to fight terrorism so far in his first 100 days.
Promise Kept: Develop a Plan to Defeat the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) Within 30 Days
Retired Marine Gen. James Mattis was the first member of President Trump’s cabinet confirmed, becoming secretary of defense just hours after the Republican commander-in-chief took office.
On January 28, President Trump officially directed the Pentagon chief to develop a plan to annihilate ISIS within 30 days.
Secretary Mattis delivered on February 27, submitting a preliminary plan to the commander-in-chief that the Pentagon has drawn up in coordination with interagency partners. The head of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), charged with American military operations in the Middle East, parts of North Africa, and Afghanistan, will execute the plan.
Citing a senior White House official, Breitbart News reported this month that “the plan is in its final stages of planning.”
Promise Kept: “Bomb the Shit Out” of ISIS
Under Trump, the top commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan dropped the most powerful non-nuclear bomb, dubbed the “mother of all bombs,” on ISIS targets in Afghanistan, killing more than 90 jihadists.
The 21,600 pound, officially named the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), has the capability to demolish everything within one square mile.
Moreover, as noted by Breitbart News earlier this week: The number of strikes targeting ISIS’ shrinking caliphate in Iraq and Syria “reached a record high in March since the U.S.-led air war began in 2014 — 3,878, according to statistics released periodically by U.S. Central Command.”
Promise Kept: “Call for an International Conference” to Halt the Spread of Radical Islam
Between March 22 and 23, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson headed a meeting in Washington, D.C. of ministers from 68 nations focussed on defeating ISIS.
Unclear: Promise to Bring Back Waterboarding
Soon after his inauguration, President Trump told ABC News he was willing to reauthorize waterboarding as a form of interrogation because it “absolutely” works, adding that he would ultimately defer to Mattis, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, and other members of his team on whether or not his administration will use the tactic.
Promise Partly Kept: Keep the Guantánamo Bay Prison Open and Fill It “With Some Bad Dudes”
The U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba remains in operation. In fact, the Trump administration reportedly circulated a draft proposal to continue using the detention center to house newly-captured enemy combatants linked to al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and ISIS.
However, President Trump has not yet made good on his campaign promise to grow the prison’s population by loading “it up with some bad dudes.”
Position Reversed: Killing Relatives of Terrorists
Even before taking office, President Trump reversed course on wittingly targeting and executing the family of terrorists, acknowledging such actions would violate international law.
Nevertheless, the American military unwittingly killed the eight-year-old daughter of U.S.-born jihadist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, the late leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), along with other civilians during the first military raid of the Trump administration against the Yemen-based terrorist group. U.S. Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens was also killed. The U.S. military killed Awlaki in a 2011 drone strike.
Unaccomplished: Promise to Establish Commission on Radical Islam
As a candidate, Trump said he planned to form a commission once in office that would “identify warning signs of radicalization” and “expose networks in our society that support radicalization.”
Trump’s “Presidential Memorandum Plan to Defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria” does not mention the formation of any commission.
After taking office, the President did vow to revamp and rename a U.S. government program designed to combat all violent ideologies so that it solely focuses on Islamist extremism.
Trump was expected to change the name of the program from “Countering Violent Extremism” (CVE) to “Countering Islamic Extremism” or “Countering Radical Islamic Extremism.”
However, the Trump administration has not made the change and CVE appears to remain in effect.
Unaccomplished: Promise to ‘Help‘ and Protect Christians in the Middle East Victimized by Jihadists
In an exclusive interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), the U.S. president said, referring to the Christian minority in the Middle East, “We are going to help them. They’ve been horribly treated.”
Drawing ire from his critics, President Trump attempted to, “on a case-by-case basis,” exempt Christians from the executive order (EO) that temporarily bars the entry into the United States of visa travelers from six terrorism-linked countries, namely Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.
Opponents of the EO lambasted the religious minority exemption, denouncing President Trump for giving preferential treatment to persecuted minority groups.
President Trump yielded to his critics and took out the exemption from the revised and latest version of the EO. Some persecuted Christians have also been denied entry into the United States under Trump’s watch.