After pushback, Trump describes pullout from Syria as ‘slow & highly coordinated’

“I just had a long and productive call with President @RT_Erdogan of Turkey. We discussed ISIS, our mutual involvement in Syria, & the slow & highly coordinated pullout of U.S. troops from the area. After many years they are coming home. We also discussed heavily expanded Trade,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

I just had a long and productive call with President @RT_Erdogan of Turkey. We discussed ISIS, our mutual involvement in Syria, & the slow & highly coordinated pullout of U.S. troops from the area. After many years they are coming home. We also discussed heavily expanded Trade.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2018

{mosads}Trump last week announced that the U.S. would withdraw its 2,000 troops from Syria. The decision prompted the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis, who reportedly attempted to dissuade Trump from making the move before he resigned.

In announcing the withdrawal last week, Trump claimed that he was doing so because the U.S. had defeated the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the region. 

The decision has also been met with fierce bipartisan criticism from a number of lawmakers, who have disputed Trump’s assertion that ISIS has been defeated in Syria.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), for example, said Sunday that Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria and possibly Afghanistan would “hand victories to our enemies.”

“It’s a very dangerous path to go down, and we shouldn’t be going down it. We ought to make sure that we keep our troops there in order to prevent the establishment of safe havens from those groups that want to attack us,” Cheney said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”