More than 10 months after coming to power, President Donald Trump said that the US has "dealt Islamic State one crushing defeat after another."
Earlier this year in Saudi Arabia, Trump said he spoke to the leaders of more than 50 Arab and Muslim nations about his strategy to defeat terrorists by stripping them of finance, territory, and ideological support.
"I urged the leaders to drive out the terrorists and extremists from their societies. Since that time, we have dealt Islamic State (ISIS) one crushing defeat after another," Trump said on Wednesday in a televised address to the nation, a day after he returned from a nearly two-week Asia trip.
Early this year, in Israel, he reaffirmed the unbreakable bond between America and the Jewish State, and he met with leaders of the Palestinian Authority and initiated an effort to facilitate lasting peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Trump said when he came into office, America was faced with a series of growing dangers.
"These threats included rogue regimes pursuing deadly weapons, foreign powers challenging America's influence, the spread of the murderous terror group ISIS, and years of unfair trade practices that had dangerously depleted our manufacturing base and wiped out millions and millions of middle-class jobs," he said.
In September, at the UN General Assembly in New York, Trump urged the nations of the world to join in confronting rogue regimes that threaten humanity and laid out a model for international cooperation grounded in respect for sovereignty and the responsibilities that come with it.