Kentucky Senator Rand Paul supports President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Northern Syria.
Paul tweeted on Monday, October 7, 2019, “I stand with @realDonaldTrump today as he once again fulfills his promises to stop our endless wars and have a true America First foreign policy.”
Several of Paul’s GOP colleagues such as Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham,and Mitch McConnell have criticized Trump’s decision. The seasoned neoconservatives believe that this move would strengthen U.S. enemies, such as ISIS, and put Kurdish allies in the region in grave danger.
Trump’s America First foreign policy has considerable overlap with Rand Paul’s non-interventionist outlook. Paul has distanced himself with the rabid neocon mindset of his fellow GOP members in the Senate.
Earlier this year, Paul criticized Republican colleagues over an amendment, which Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pushed forward, that warned the administration from withdrawing troops in both Syria or Afghanistan.
“To call it a precipitous withdrawal after 17 years is ludicrous,” Paul said during a Fox News interview a few months ago. “We’ve been there 17 years.”
Some GOP lawmakers believe that Paul is having a tremendous influence on the White House’s foreign policy decisions, much to their annoyance.
“Once again @realDonaldTrump uses Rand Paul’s ‘endless wars’ talking points as he orders America to once again abandon our friends and give Russia & Iran exactly what they want. This is wrong,” Congressman Adam Kinzinger tweeted.
Noah Wall, FreedomWorks’ Vice President of Advocacy, praised Trump’s decision.
“President Trump ran on the promise to end America’s involvement in foreign wars. The United States military has been deployed to Syria for the better part of five years now, it’s time to bring the troops home,” he declared in a statement.
Neocons can cry all they want, but Trump is the President and he has the last say on foreign policy matters.
