What did Donald Trump claim about the military on 1 Oct 2023?
Donald Trump, Former President of the United States and Republican presidential candidate ·
Remember Syria and Turkey, remember they were having the problem. And I brought our troops back home. We had 5,000 troops sitting in between two armies, Syria and Turkey, two hundreds of thousands of people. We had 5,000 troops trying to maintain the border.
There were not 5,000. The October 2019 pullback cut U.S. forces in northeastern Syria from about 1,000 to 500, with about 100 more at a garrison in the southeast.
The Lead Inspector General for Operation Inherent Resolve reported that the October 2019 withdrawal from Syria's northeastern border reduced U.S. forces in northeastern Syria from approximately 1,000 to 500, with about another hundred at the At Tanf Garrison in the southeast (Lead IG report to Congress, Oct. 1-Dec. 31, 2019).
Claim vs. the record · Military
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The claim
- Date
- Where
- Campaign event in Ottumwa, Iowa.
The record
Primary source (agency statement)