JUST IN: Top Trump Admin Official Resigns In Protest Of Syria Withdrawal

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It was quite a shock when Trump’s national security advisor, Gen. James Mattis, resigned in protest of Donald Trump’s alarming and sudden withdrawal of troops from Syria despite the advice of all his more seasoned and experienced advisors. Now, Trump has lost yet another official.

Brett McGurk, the special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, handed in his resignation on Friday following remarks earlier in the week that called any effort to pull U.S. troops from Syria “reckless.” Shortly afterward, Trump did just that.

‘McGurk submitted his resignation on Friday, just one day after Defense Secretary James Mattis quit his post citing fundamental disagreements with the commander-in-chief — including one over the importance of honoring U.S. alliances.’

Screenshot-at-Dec-22-11-53-33 JUST IN: Top Trump Admin Official Resigns In Protest Of Syria Withdrawal Donald Trump Featured National Security Politics Top Stories

Screenshot-at-Dec-22-11-53-51 JUST IN: Top Trump Admin Official Resigns In Protest Of Syria Withdrawal Donald Trump Featured National Security Politics Top Stories

Trump can insist that it’s the “fake news media” calling out his decision on Syria, but his own national defense secretary and envoy who reports on the crisis there have also called him out. These people are not, as Trump often accuses the media, in collusion with Democrats to make Trump look bad.

‘The special envoy was publicly left in the lurch by the president’s sudden declaration on Wednesday that he was pulling U.S. forces out of Syria, against the advice of his top national security advisers and without consulting U.S. allies.’

Trump’s action made a fool of his official, who had just promised to remain in Syria until the threat was over to support our allies.

‘Just days earlier, McGurk had stood at the State Department podium to guarantee an ongoing U.S. commitment to the fight. He told reporters that ISIS inhabited just one percent of the territory they once held thanks to the success of the U.S.-led campaign but still maintained a dangerous level of influence.’

‘”I think it’s fair to say Americans will remain on the ground after the physical defeat of the caliphate, until we have the pieces in place to ensure that that defeat is enduring…it would be reckless if we were just to say, well, the physical caliphate is defeated, so we can just leave now. I think anyone who’s looked at a conflict like this would agree with that.”‘

In case anyone is keeping track, the U.S. now has no permanent chief of staff, no permanent attorney general, no defense secretary, and no envoy in the fight against terrorism.

Featured image via Flickr by Gage Skidmore under a Creative Commons license