WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg says President Trump’s approach to foreign policy will hurt America.
“The credibility of the United States is something that our lives depend on,” Buttigieg said on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday. “When the president undermines it, with things like his actions in Syria, that is going to cost us for years and years.”
The mayor of South Bend made the prediction while talking about the withdrawal of U.S. forces from northern Syria.
“What Trump does is wake up in the morning and have a phone call or tweet and completely change years or decades of U.S. policy,” he added. “(That) even surprises his own generals and country in the process.”
He said the U.S. has got to be a country that keeps its word to our allies.
Vice-President Mike Pence was in Syria last week where he helped mediate a delicate cease-fire between the Turkish forces and the Kurds in northern Syria, the same region the president opted to pull US troops out of earlier this month.
The move has drawn bipartisan criticism of the Trump Administration. Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) warned that the withdrawal of US troops from Syria “will leave the American people and homeland less safe, embolden our enemies, and weaken important alliances.”
Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Saturday that nearly all 1,000 troops that were pulled from northern Syria earlier this month are expected to move to western Iraq, to continue the U.S. campaign against ISIS.
(PHOTO: Scott Olson/Getty Images)
