President Trump seemingly set out to quell fears Monday that the
White House was creating an opening for
Turkey to attack U.S.-allied Kurdish forces in Northern Syria.The White House announced Sunday night that U.S. troops would leave northern
Syria and that Turkey would launch an invasion in the region.
Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan considers the Kurdish fighters "terrorists," as a result of a longstanding separatist movement among
Kurds in
Iraq,
Iran, Syria, and Turkey, but the U.S. considered the Kurdish forces in northern Syria to be their strongest allies in the fight against the
Islamic State, which is why Trump has received bipartisan criticism for leaving them vulnerable to Turkish forces.Trump, though, said that Turkey won't do anything he, in his "great and unmatched wisdom," considers "off limits" or else he'll "totally destroy and obliterate" the Turkish
economy — again.
Trump doesn't mention the Kurds by name, but he has boasted about preventing Erdogan from attempting to "wipe out" the Kurds in the past, so it stands to reason he was referring to them.