Trump Takes Credit For ISIS ‘Giving Up’
President Donald Trump took credit for the fact that ISIS is in retreat during an interview Tuesday, claiming that ISIS wasn’t on the run before because “you didn’t have Trump as your president.”
Trump has overseen a steady transfer of power from the White House to the Pentagon since becoming President, handing off several warfighting authorities that previously rested in his hands — and those of past presidents of both parties — to the Pentagon and the commanders overseeing the US military campaigns.
“No longer will we have slowed decision cycles because Washington, DC, has to authorize tactical movements on the ground,” Defense Secretary James Mattis said in May.
“I have absolute confidence as does the President, our commander in chief, in the commanders on the ground as he’s proven by delegating this authority to me with the authority to further delegate it and they’ve carried it out aggressively.”
The decision to allow commanders more leeway in undertaking operations on their own authority was highlighted in May by Mattis as a key change to Trump’s ISIS approach — but it is difficult to credit that decision for the totality of the battlefield success against ISIS.
While Trump was quick to attribute the success against ISIS to his own impact on the US military, he failed to highlight the fact that the fight in Iraq and Syria has long been led by an array of local forces — with the US and coalition members acting in a supporting role.
