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President Trump on Monday asked why he would hurt Russia by expanding U.S. energy production if he was in cahoots with the Kremlin, as most Democrats suspect. “‘Gas prices drop across the United States because President Trump has deregulated Energy and we are now producing a great deal more oil than ever before.’ @foxandfriends But this is bad news for Russia, why would President Trump do such a thing? Thought he worked for Kremlin?” Trump wrote on Twitter Monday morning. On Friday, the New York Times reported that the FBI opened an investigation into whether President Trump was working with...

FULL TITLE: Trump touts 'long overdue' Syria pullout, says US 'will devastate Turkey economically' if they attack Kurds President Donald Trump on Sunday tweeted that the "long overdue pullout from Syria" is starting, and threatened that the U.S. will "devastate Turkey economically" if they attack Kurdish forces in the war-torn country. Trump said the removal of troops, which he announced via Twitter in December, is happening "while hitting the little remaining ISIS territorial caliphate hard, and from many directions." The president also vowed that the U.S. "Will attack [ISIS] again from existing nearby base if it reforms." Trump promised the...

Prince Turki al-Faisal told the BBC the action would have a negative impact, further entrenching Iran, Russia and the rule of President Bashar al-Assad. US President Donald Trump announced in December that it was time to bring US troops home from Syria. Prince Turki was speaking just before US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo began a visit to Riyadh.

Starting the long overdue pullout from Syria while hitting the little remaining ISIS territorial caliphate hard, and from many directions. Will attack again from existing nearby base if it reforms. Will devastate Turkey economically if they hit Kurds. Create 20 mile safe zone.... 5:53 PM - 13 Jan 2019 ....Likewise, do not want the Kurds to provoke Turkey. Russia, Iran and Syria have been the biggest beneficiaries of the long term U.S. policy of destroying ISIS in Syria - natural enemies. We also benefit but it is now time to bring our troops back home. Stop the ENDLESS WARS! 6:02...

When Donald Trump announced that his first trip abroad as president would take him to Saudi Arabia and to Israel, it was a signal that the new administration had returned America’s traditional alliances in the Middle East to their privileged status. For the prior eight years, the Obama White House had, in contrast, prioritized relations with these countries’ regional adversary in Iran and embraced the Islamic Republic’s regional allies, Turkey and Qatar, as key interlocutors and partners. The Obama administration also supported Islamist movements in the Middle East, principally the Muslim Brotherhood, that threated to topple regimes and instigate more...

President Donald TrumpÂ’s about-face toward his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan is enough to give whiplash. Just 5-months ago, Trump was criticizing Turkey and undercutting its economy to bring ErdoÄŸan to his knees over the imprisonment of Pastor Andrew Brunson. Behind-the-scenes, American officials/U.S. intelligence had grown exacerbated with ErdoÄŸan for his enabling of the Islamic State as well as terrorist groups ranging from Hamas to Boko Haram . Now, of course, ErdoÄŸan is TrumpÂ’s confidant and friend. The irony of this about-face is the prickly Trump has absolutely no idea the disdain with which ErdoÄŸan and the Turkish press view...

President Trump making his case for a barrier on the nation's southern border in a speech Tuesday night, describing a crisis with illegal immigration that includes the deaths of thousands of Americans..... The co-leader of the anti-mass immigration Alternative for Germany party, Alice Weidel, says that the brutal attack on AfD parliament member Frank Magnitz was an attempted assassination. Weidel added that: "the hatred against the AfD and the media coverage against this democratically elected party is bearing fruit" At least three masked men beat Magnitz unconscious using a piece of wood Monday in the city of Bremen. He was...

U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton is set to depart Turkey without meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in an apparent snub over disagreements about Kurdish fighters in Syria. National Security Council spokesman Garrett Marquis said U.S. officials were told Erdogan cited local election season and a speech to parliament for not meeting with Bolton. In the speech to parliament Tuesday, Erdogan criticized the U.S. position that the Kurds must be protected, reiterating his government’s position that they are a terrorist group.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a blunt put-down Tuesday against White House national security advisor John Bolton over his pledges to ensure Turkish nonaggression against Kurds who fought against the Islamic State in Syria. “We cannot accept Bolton’s messages given from Israel,” the Turkish president said, adding that Bolton made a “serious mistake,” Reuters reported. He was referring to statements by the senior Trump administration official, made from Israel over the weekend, promising safety for the U.S.-allied Kurdish militias — who dominate areas in Northern Syria and whom the Turks view as terrorists — in the event of a...

Ankara, Turkey -- U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton arrived Monday in Turkey for negotiations on the fate of American-allied Kurdish fighters, who said they were unclear what to make of his recent comments about U.S. plans to withdraw troops from Syria. The Kurdish militiamen and women were central to the U.S. military's fight against ISIS in Syria, and many saw President Trump's recent announcement of a pull-out as potentially putting those allies at risk. ... Bolton will seek assurances from Turkey, a NATO ally, that it won't attack the Kurds when the U.S. withdraws troops from northeastern Syria. Monday's...

President Donald Trump will not withdraw American troops from northern Syria until the Turkish government guarantees it won’t then attack Syrian Kurdish forces that have been critical allies in the fight against ISIS, national security adviser John Bolton said Sunday. Bolton said a commitment from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that protects the Kurds after American forces exit is something Trump is demanding, and that it’s just one of several conditions that have to be met before U.S. troops leave. “There are objectives that we want to accomplish that condition the withdrawal,” Bolton said. He spoke to reporters traveling with...

Kurdish forces in Syria said Sunday that they had captured two American citizens hiding out in the country's final Islamic State stronghold. In a statement, the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, identified the detainees as Warren Christopher Clark, 34, and Zaid Abed al-Hamid, 35. It said the pair had been captured alongside three others suspected of being foreign recruits in the extremist group.

The substantial request for military support included air raids, logistics and transportation so Turkish forces could finish off the remaining fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) in Syria, senior US officials were quoted as saying by the WSJ on Friday. "The Turkish requests are so extensive that, if fully met, the American military might be deepening its involvement in Syria instead of reducing it," the newspaper reported. The unidentified American officials told the Journal there was little chance Washington would agree to Ankara's requests in full. US President Donald Trump announced...

The president's shift in policy has been portrayed as a surprise—but America's foreign-policy machinery was quietly tasked with preparing for it months ago. ... “From 2011 and for the seven years that followed, the experts have been telling us that Assad’s days were numbered, that he was finished, even when it became obvious that wasn’t going to happen; it was a fairytale,” Middle East analyst Geoffrey Aronson said. “The result is that we were reduced to playing the role of spoiler. Listen, there are lots of reasons to not like Trump, but this was the right policy move to make....

U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton has warned the Syrian government it should not see the impending U.S. military withdrawal from the country as an invitation to use chemical weapons. U.S. President Donald Trump said in December that U.S. troops had succeeded in their mission to defeat Islamic State militants and were no longer needed in the country. The announcement, which took officials in Washington and allies abroad by surprise, contributed to Jim Mattis’ decision to resign as U.S. defense secretary and prompted concern that Islamic State could stage a comeback.

New York Knicks center Enes Kanter announced Friday that he will not be traveling to London for the NBA team’s upcoming game out of fear of a possible assassination attempt due to his opposition to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Kanter, a Turkish native, told reporters he can’t travel anywhere except the U.S. and Canada because “there’s a chance I could get killed out there.” “Sadly, I’m not going because of that freaking lunatic, the Turkish president,” Kanter said. “It’s pretty sad that all the stuff affects my career and basketball, because I want to be out there and help...

The gruesome murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi shredded the idea that Saudi Arabian royalty should be praised for reforming itself. Princes who chop political opponents into little pieces are not nice people. That said, puh-leeze stop it with the adoration of a man who deserves none of it. Politico ran a gushing headline that read, "Jamal Khashoggi: The Free Thinker Whose Murder Shook the World." Time magazine named him one of "the Guardians," the journalistic muckrakers who became its 2018 Person of the Year. Time's Karl Vick laid on the praise, and thick, writing: "Khashoggi put his faith...

The Syrian regime said Wednesday hundreds of Kurdish fighters had withdrawn from Manbij near the border with Turkey... "The information (we have) indicates that nearly 400 Kurdish fighters have left Manbij so far." The People's Protection Units (YPG), the main Kurdish militia in Syria, last week invited regime forces to deploy to the key city following a shock announcement that American troops would leave the country.

In his second year in office, the list of extraordinary things President Trump has done, for good and ill, continued to grow. Today, I offer my annual list of the 10 best things Trump has done in office. (In my next column, I will give you my list of the 10 worst.) 10. He has secured the release of 19 people, including 16 Americans, from foreign captivity. When Pastor Andrew Brunson was freed by Turkey, he became the 19th captive released thanks to Trump. Others include: four held by North Korea; an aid worker and her husband held by Egypt;...

During a tirade against outlawed Kurdish militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has referred to two of the bloodiest massacres in Turkish Republican history as “theatre” invented to “incite unrest.”“Those old enough will remember the events in Çorum and Maraş. Dozens of our citizens were killed. It was complete theatre, designed to incite unrest,” Soylu said.“We are living through 40 years of PKK incitement,” the interior minister added. It is unclear what link the minister was attempting to make between the massacres and the Kurdish militant group, which did not become launch its insurgency...