By Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.
Yet again, Donald Trump has jumped the gun. Last week, the Trump administration revealed plans to remove all American troops from Syria by the end of April—a position long championed by the president. The move rankled even some congressional allies like Senator Lindsey Graham, who apparently made his displeasure known to Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan over the weekend. Now, it’s clear lawmakers weren’t the only ones blindsided by the planned withdrawal—key United States allies appear to have been left out of the loop, as well.
On Wednesday, The Washington Post reported that U.S. allies “unanimously” declined the Trump administration’s request to pick up the slack fighting ISIS in Syria if the U.S. removes its troops in the spring, as Trump has apparently directed Shanahan to do. A senior administration official told the Post that allies have made it clear they “won’t stay if you pull out.” Trump’s hasty move, then, could leave behind a powder keg. “It’s not safe to leave these enemies there, without any referee or mediating force,” said a U.S. official.
His approach to Syria is the latest example of Trump’s seeming tendency to push policy without working out the details, which has frustrated even some of his closest allies. “That’s the dumbest fucking idea I’ve ever heard,” Graham evidently told Shanahan of Trump’s withdrawal plan in a meeting in Munich last Saturday. The South Carolina Republican, normally a staunch defender of the president, has been venting about the administration’s Syria policy since December, when Trump suddenly announced it would be up to other nations to fight ISIS there—despite also claiming that the terrorist organization had been “defeated.” Graham torched the policy, saying at the time that he would “hold the administration accountable for this decision,” and promising a hearing over the planned move.
“It’s hard to imagine that any president would wake up and make this kind of decision with this little communication,” Republican Bob Corker said at the time.
But it appears that’s precisely how Trump has approached one of the most complicated foreign-policy conundrums of his presidency. While the commander-in-chief seemingly continues to talk out of his ass—on Friday he said he would announce the “eradication of the caliphate . . . over the next 24 hours,” but no such announcement has come—U.S. allies appear to be losing patience. Last week, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called Trump’s call for withdrawal a “mystery,” and British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said that “there is no prospect of British forces replacing the Americans” in Syria. Their pushback has left Trump hanging. Whether it will be enough to force him to reconsider remains to be seen.
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