Trump again says he personally 'captured' ISIS

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

President Trump did what?

In a Cabinet meeting Monday, Trump addressed the ongoing withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, again referring to the Kurds, the U.S. allies who largely fought America's campaign against ISIS, as "not angels." He then went all-in on claiming he "captured" ISIS all by himself.

"ISIS was all over the place," Trump said Monday of the time before he got involved in Syria, per a pool report. "It was me ... who captured them. I'm the one who did the capturing. I'm the one who knows more about it than you people or the fake pundits," Trump then told the gathered reporters. It's reminiscent of his false claim last week that, even though his then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis said it would take two years to defeat ISIS, Trump did it in one month.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

With his infamous bone spurs, age, and the general busyness of being the president, it seems safe to say that Trump did not, in fact, fight with thousands of U.S. troops and even more Kurds to defeat ISIS fighters in Syria. Trump did, however, order America's troops out of the area earlier this month and leave the Kurds to face the ISIS threat and a Turkish incursion on their own.

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Kathryn Krawczyk

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.