Doubly Wrong on ISIS. Trump can legitimately say that the last of the Islamic State-controlled land in Syria and Iraq was retaken by coalition forces during his presidency (it
happened in March). But instead, he
repeatedly and
falsely claimed that “virtually 100%” of the caliphate’s land was regained under him, or that when he “took office, we had almost nothing.” About half of the territory had been regained under his predecessor, Barack Obama — according to Trump’s own administration.
In
a briefing on Dec. 21, 2017, Brett McGurk, then-special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter ISIS, said that about 98 percent of the caliphate land had been regained and “50 percent” of those losses for ISIS happened in 2017.
Trump also
falsely said that captured Islamic State fighters being held in Syria are “mostly from Europe,” a claim French President Emmanuel Macron
fact-checked in real time when the two leaders appeared together at the annual NATO summit in December.
According to
a report from U.S. inspectors general, “about 800” of about 10,000 ISIS fighters in detention centers across northeastern Syria were from Europe, while about 8,000 of them were nationals of Iraq and Syria.