Sen. Rand Paul said Wednesday he and President Donald Trump have talked extensively about U.S. troop withdrawals from Syria and Afghanistan. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo Congress Rand Paul: Trump poised for draw down in Afghanistan, Syria pullout

Sen. Rand Paul strongly suggested that President Donald Trump is poised to begin scaling back the U.S. presence in Afghanistan and will follow through on his promise to pull out of Syria, the Kentucky Republican told reporters Wednesday.

Paul met with Trump privately and in a larger meeting with other senators on the president’s plans to wind down the U.S. presence in Syria. While Paul would not talk specifics of Trump’s plans, he said that the president recognizes “we’ve been at war too long and in too many places.”


“Not only is he following through on his Syria policy, I really do think there will be changes in Afghanistan as well,” Paul said in a conference call with reporters. “In general, the idea is that we’re going to do things differently. We’re not going to stay forever. The Afghans will have to step up.”

“It’s not that we’ll do nothing … we’ll probably still be there longer than I would like,” Paul said. “The president does acknowledge that America’s longest war does need to come to a close.”

Sign up here for POLITICO Huddle A daily play-by-play of congressional news in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Most GOP senators have been pressing the president to do the opposite: Slow the withdrawal from Syria and keep a large presence in Afghanistan. Those hawkish senators, some of whom attended the larger briefing with Trump, have made the case that the Islamic State and other terrorist groups may fill the vacuum left when the U.S. pulls out.

A terrorist attack in Syria that killed four Americans on Wednesday also raised fears among GOP hawks that the planned pullout could be emboldening terrorists. But Paul said Trump recognizes he still needs to fight terrorism even as he brings U.S. troops home.

“We talked extensively about Syria, he talked about how we will continue to make sure that ISIS not a problem,” Paul said. “At the same time, we won’t be in these places forever.”

