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PartialForeign Policy, Defense & Wars

We are getting out of the nation-building business, and instead focusing on creating stability in the world.

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PartialFact-checker reviewConfidence: 70%

In office, Trump formally abandoned nation-building as declared policy: his August 21, 2017 Afghanistan strategy stated the U.S. would no longer use its military to construct democracies abroad, his administration shifted Syria stabilization costs to coalition partners in 2018, and he signed the February 29, 2020 Doha agreement and ordered Afghanistan troop levels down to 2,500 by January 15, 2021. However, the same 2017 strategy expanded the Afghanistan war effort with additional troops and continued support for the Afghan government, and U.S. reconstruction and stabilization commitments persisted through most of the term. The exit from nation-building was real in direction but incomplete by the end of the term (January 20, 2021), and the promised broader stability was mixed, supporting partial credit for this aspirational pledge.

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