Trump pledges to hold news conference on ISIS fight in 'two weeks'

President Donald Trump on Monday said he plans to hold a news conference “in two weeks” on the fight against the Islamic State.

“We’ve had tremendous success against ISIS in our fight in the Middle East, where we’re doing very, very well,” Trump said Monday in remarks to the media during a Cabinet meeting at the White House. “We’re gonna be having a news conference in two weeks on that fight, and you’ll see numbers that you would not have believed. And frankly, if you look back to even six months ago, you wouldn’t have believed it was possible.”


Trump has been mum on his administration’s plans to defeat ISIS, refusing to telegraph potential military moves to America’s adversaries. However, Trump has previously promised to share more about the fight against ISIS in a two-week timeframe.

“We are doing very well in the fight against ISIS,” the president said on May 21. “We’re gonna be having a news conference in about two weeks to let everybody know how well we’re doing.” No such news conference has occurred or been announced.

Bloomberg last week highlighted the president’s propensity to set — and miss — deadlines for “two weeks.” Missed self-imposed two-week deadlines include a tax plan, a $1 trillion infrastructure plan, a decision on whether to pull the U.S. of out a global climate pact and the news conference on ISIS.

As a candidate, Trump said he would instruct his generals to submit to him within 30 days “a plan for soundly and quickly defeating ISIS.” Trump made good on that pledge, signing a memorandum in January requesting Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to submit a “preliminary draft” of an ISIS plan within the 30-day mark.

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It’s unclear, however, what that plan is. Congress last month buried a provision in legislation funding the government through the end of September that withholds $2.5 billion in defense funds until the administration details a plan to deal with the Islamic State and Syrian leader Bashar Assad.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for a string of attacks in recent weeks, including a suicide bombing in Manchester, United Kingdom; the mowing down and stabbing of pedestrians in London; and a shooting and suicide bombing in Iran.

Trump tweeted last week that the U.S. needs his administration's proposed travel ban to keep Americans safe. Both versions of the ban have been blocked by the courts.