“We’re knocking the hell out of ISIS. We’ll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon," the president said during an event in Ohio. "Let the other people take care of it now.” | Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo Trump wants ‘out’ of Syria ‘very soon,’ contradicting top officials 'We’ll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon,' the president said Thursday, in what would be an apparent change in U.S. policy.

President Donald Trump said Thursday that the United States will end its military presence in Syria “very soon”—contradicting his secretaries of state and defense, who have said U.S. troops should stay in the Arab country for the foreseeable future.

Trump’s declaration was just the latest instance in which the president has publicly undercut or defied his foreign policy team, to the frustration and confusion of U.S. officials and America’s allies.


Speaking in Ohio Thursday, Trump boasted that U.S. is winning its battle against the Islamic State terrorist group, and vowed that once the fight is finished, American troops will leave Syria. The Pentagon has acknowledged a presence of about 2,000 troops in Syria, many of them Special Forces working closely with Kurdish and Arab militias against ISIS, which has lost nearly all its captured territory in the country over the past year.

“We’re knocking the hell out of ISIS. We’ll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon,” the president said during an event in Ohio. “Let the other people take care of it now.”

“We got to get back to our country where we belong, where we want to be,” he added.

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Trump’s view runs contrary to the crux of a detailed speech on Syria by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, whom Trump has since fired, as well as multiple comments by Secretary of Defense James Mattis. Both men have argued that the U.S. must remain involved in the country—not only to prevent ISIS's return but as part of a larger battle of influence underway there among multiple nations including Russia and Iran, which have backed the regime of Syrian president Bashar Assad.

CIA director Mike Pompeo, whom Trump has tapped to succeeed Tillerson, and Trump's incoming national security adviser John Bolton have both also suggested that the U.S. has interests in Syria that extend beyond militarily defeating ISIS.

"Trump has never believed it was worth investing significant American blood and treasure to try to sort out the problems of the Middle East," said Phil Gordon, who oversaw Syria policy as a senior national security aide in the Obama White House. "And if that view is somewhat different from that of Tillerson and Mattis, it’s even more different from the views of Pompeo and Bolton, who both put a premium on US leadership in the region, confrontation with Iran, and support overthrowing hostile, anti-American regimes like the one in Syria."

"People including regional allies who were expecting the new appointments to lead to greater U.S. military deployments in the region need to reckon with the views of the president himself," Gordon added.

Trump's comments are starkly different in tone from a speech Tillerson delivered in January that was widely interpreted as an articulation of U.S. strategy—not just the outgoing diplomat's personal views.

In it, Tillerson told an audience in California that the U.S. "will maintain a military presence in Syria focused on ensuring ISIS cannot re-emerge."

"We cannot make the same mistakes that were made in 2011 when a premature departure from Iraq allowed al-Qaeda in Iraq to survive and eventually morph into ISIS," he added.

As a candidate, Trump often made the same point—blaming then-President Barack Obama for the scourge of ISIS on the grounds that Obama had been too hasty in withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.

But Tillerson also expressed broader goals, including preventing Iranian-backed militia groups from taking over Syrian territory, and maintaining influence over any potential peace settlement for the country’s civil war. Israel strongly supports a continued U.S. challenge to Iranian influence within the country.

Tillerson’s Syria policy was developed with the consultation and blessing of Defense Secretary James Mattis, who has repeatedly said the Pentagon's mission in Syria will continue—not only to keep ISIS from regenerating but to influence peace negotiations there. “We’re not just going to walk away right now before the Geneva process has traction,” Mattis said in November, a reference to peace talks that have occurred sporadically for several years in the Swiss city.

In January, Mattis told reporters that more diplomats, under military protection, would be headed to the country for stabilization and rebuilding efforts.

Pompeo has also suggested that the U.S. mission in Syria should extend beyond the fight against ISIS. Asked on CBS's "Face the Nation" earlier this month whether the U.S. mission in Syria should "change to counter Iran and its proxies," Pompeo declined to comment on policy, but complained that the Obama administration had given Iran "a free pass" inside Syria and said that "we're working diligently to find the right approach to counter the incredible spread of Iranian hegemony throughout the Middle East."

In July, Bolton argued that the "U.S.-led coalition... needs to thwart Iran’s ambitions as ISIS falls" in Syria—although he also wrote that the U.S. "has carried too much of the burden for too long" in Syria.

Syria has been riven by a civil war that began in spring 2011. Rebel groups have been fighting to overthrow Assad, who has been backed by Russia and Iran. The Islamic State exploited the chaos to grab large amounts of territory in Syria and Iraq, leading the U.S. to resume military operations in Iraq and carry out strikes against the group in Syria.

Today, the battle space has grown highly complicated, involving not only Syrians, Kurds Iranians and Russians but more recently Turkish forces who are battling the Kurds.

A White House spokeswoman had no immediate comment. The Pentagon referred POLITICO to the White House. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"There has always in fact been a contradiction at the heart of Trump’s Middle East policy, which is that he supports vigorously confronting Iran and ISIS but also limiting American spending and fighting at the same time," Gordon said. "But if it’s one or the other and it looks like if forced to choose, he’ll keep the U.S. out."

Cristiano Lima contributed to this report.