Looming large was his abrupt decision last week to withdraw about 2,000 U.S. troops deployed in Syria. The move brought significant criticism from foreign policy experts, military officials and allies who disagree with his belief that the United States' role in fighting the Islamic State militant group should end.

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Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Brett McGurk, the special presidential envoy overseeing the campaign against the Islamic State, so disapproved of Trump’s decision that it was the apparent tipping point for their resignations.

“The nations of the regions must step up and take more responsibility for their future,” Trump said in Iraq in defense of his decision.

Some panned Trump’s long-awaited troop visit for its brevity — three hours; its politicization, as Trump attacked Democrats in his speech to the troops while discussing the government shutdown; and his decision not to meet with key officials in Iraq. The decision not to discuss the U.S. Middle East strategy with key allies in the region, including Iraq’s prime minister, was interpreted as emblematic of Trump’s “America First” worldview — that it’s essentially “America Only,” much to the chagrin of allies and key players on the international stage.

Trump’s handling of such key decisions served merely as a reminder to some of gaps in his knowledge about the military. Trump, who has dismissed the military service of the late senator John McCain and other political rivals, has never served in the military — although he said that while attending his New York City prep school, he “always felt that I was in the military.” While campaigning, Trump repeatedly said that bone spurs kept him from being drafted for military service in Vietnam. But on the very day that Trump visited the troops in Iraq, the New York Times reported that the daughters of the doctor who had provided the diagnosis that medically exempted Trump said he did it as a favor to gain access to Fred Trump, the president’s father and owner of the building where the doctor operated his medical practice.

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