President Trump on Wednesday defended his abrupt decision to withdraw American troops from northern Syria, seeking to counter international and bipartisan criticism as Turkey continued its offensive against the Kurds.

Here’s an assessment of his remarks at two events on Wednesday.

What Mr. Trump Said

“Now, the P.K.K., which is a part of the Kurds, as you know, is probably worse at terror and more of a terrorist threat in many ways than ISIS.”

False.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., is a separatist group primarily composed of Turkish Kurds with deep ties to Kurdish militias that joined with other groups to form the Syrian Democratic Forces, which has been fighting the Islamic State, or ISIS, in Syria.

The United States considers those Kurdish-led militias key allies in the fight against ISIS, but has designated the P.K.K. a terrorist organization since 1987. Still, it’s a huge stretch to compare the group to ISIS.

The director of national intelligence has called ISIS a global terrorism threat every year since 2015, while the P.K.K. has been noted as a regional security threat to Turkey or Syria. The State Department’s latest annual terrorism report contains over 500 references ISIS, including a lengthy introduction assessing its influence in the region, compared with under 30 mentions of the P.K.K.