When President Trump announced via tweeter that the U.S. is pulling out all 2000 of its troops from Syria, the move sent shockwaves through both houses of Congress. Many have said it was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and led to the resignation of former General John Kelly as White House Chief of Staff. Soon after, Brett McGurk, special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, also handed Trump his resignation.
However, despite the controversy, Trump has one staunch supporter of the pullout policy – Senator Rand Paul. In a recent interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Paul praised President Trump for doing “exactly what he promised” by withdrawing US troops from Syria — and derided the “armchair generals” in Washington who “want to keep us at war forever.”
Proud of the President
Paul went on to say that he was “very proud” of Trump’s determination to get troops out of the Middle East. “This is exactly what he promised … I think people believe that we’ve been at war too long and too many places and that we do need to turn attention to problems we have at home,” Paul added.
In a separate interview on CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” Paul also lauded the drawdown in Afghanistan, saying savings from that could be the source of wall funding that’s stymied Congress, and triggered a partial government shutdown.
Regarding the wall, Paul said he would not vote for wall funding, unless cuts to pay for it are made elsewhere. But, he added that the money to build the wall could easily be found by not gutting any other program, but simply withdrawing our troops from Afghanistan as well as Syria.
“I think we should have declared victory [in Afghanistan] years ago, I think we should come home and of that $50 billion in savings we would have enough for a border wall and security,” he said.
He concluded his interview on CNN by saying, “The President’s right, I think the people agree with him, let’s rebuild America. Let’s spend that money here at home.”
