page_title: Foreign policy of the Donald Trump administration
section_title: 2019
hierarchical_section_title: Foreign policy of the Donald Trump administration / Middle East and North Africa / Iraq, Syria, and the Islamic State / Responses to the Islamic State / After inauguration / 2019
caption_attribution_description: President Donald Trump is joined by Vice President Mike Pence, National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, left; Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff U.S. Army General Mark A. Milley, and Brig. Gen. Marcus Evans, Deputy Director for Special Operations on the Joint Staff, at right, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2019, in the Situation Room of the White House monitoring developments as U.S. Special Operations forces close in on notorious ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s compound in Syria with a mission to kill or capture the terrorist. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)
context_page_description: The stated aims of the foreign policy of the Donald Trump administration include a focus on security, by fighting terrorists abroad and strengthening border defenses and immigration controls; an expansion of the U.S. military; an "America First" approach to trade; and diplomacy whereby "old enemies become friends". During his presidential inauguration speech, Trump said that during his presidency the U.S. would "not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example. We will shine for everyone to follow." He also stated that his administration would "seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world," and that he believed in the "right of all nations to put their own interests first."
  Trump supported a robust national defense during the 2016 election campaign and in his first budget proposal as president in March 2017, proposed a $54 billion increase in defense spending, to a total of $639 billion for fiscal year 2018. He said the increase would be needed to fight terrorism, improve troop readiness, and build new ships and planes, and would be paid for by deep cuts to other agencies, including a 28% cut from the US State Department budget.
context_section_description: One week after this announcement, Trump asserted he would not approve any extension of the American deployment in Syria. On January 6, 2019, national security advisor John Bolton added conditions to the pullout, announcing America would remain in Syria until ISIL is eradicated and until Turkey guarantees it would not strike America's Kurdish allies.
  On February 22, 2019, the administration stated that instead of the initially announced "total" pullout, 400 U.S. troops would remain in Syria indefinitely to serve as a contingency force. About 200 of those would be a part of a larger multinational "observer force". Press secretary Sarah Sanders initially characterized the troops as "peacekeepers", although a senior administration official later disputed that label as the term technically implied restricted rules of engagement. The shift from a total to a partial withdrawal came after Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford strongly vouched for it as French and British allies declined to remain in Syria unless America did. After the announcement, The New York Times quoted officials as describing a "surreal atmosphere" at the Pentagon among military leaders overseeing Syrian policy. A bipartisan group of members of Congress wrote Trump a letter on February 22 endorsing a "small American stabilizing force" in Syria. Trump responded by writing directly on the letter, "I agree 100%. ALL is being done."
  On February 28, while speaking to troops at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska during a refueling stop from Hanoi, Trump asserted that the Islamic State had lost "100 percent" of its territory that it once controlled in Syria. The assertion was false, as the Battle of Baghuz Fawqani was still ongoing, and the Islamic State still held territory in the Syrian Desert as well as the town of Al-Baghuz Fawqani.
  On March 22, 2019, in response to developments in the Battle of Baghuz Fawqani, where ISIL was still putting up stubborn resistance to the SDF, Trump showed reporters two maps comparing the extents of the Islamic State's occupation of Syria and Iraq, stating “Here’s ISIS on Election Day. Here’s ISIS right now." The "election day" map was actually from 2014, when the Islamic State was at its greatest territorial extent, and just as the U.S.-led coalition had begun pushing back against ISIL. The battle concluded on March 23, the next day, with the SDF militia's victory over ISIL. Trump administration officials and allies cautiously hailed the territorial collapse of the Islamic State in Syria while stressing the need to keep a presence in the country to keep up pressure and to stop a territorial resurgence of the Islamic State.
  From 2011, a reward of $10 million was offered for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, by the US State Department, increasing to $25 million in 2017, for information or intelligence on his whereabouts to enable capture, dead or alive. On October 27, 2019, he killed himself and two children by detonating a suicide vest during the Barisha raid conducted by the US Delta Force in Syria's northwestern Idlib Province. Trump later announced the death, stating that al-Baghdadi "died after running into a dead-end tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming all the way",  despite only having seen drone footage without audio.
caption: Donald Trump, with key civilian and military officials, observe the Barisha raid in the White House Situation Room, October 26, 2019
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