Trump signs new counterterrorism strategy

United States President Donald Trump on Thursday approved the new National Strategy for Counterterrorism to thwart threats to US interests, both home and abroad.

The strategy document unveils plans for the Trump administration's approach to nullify terror threat, including targeting terrorism at their source and ramping up domestic efforts to address terrorism at home, CNN reported.

National Security Adviser John Bolton on Thursday unveiled the strategy. Bolton described the strategy as being contrasting to former President Barack Obama's approach, adding that the Trump administration identifies the problem to be stemming from radical Islamist ideologies.

"Radical Islamist terrorist groups still represent the preeminent threat to the United States. We recognize that there is a terrorist ideology that we're confronting. And I think it's long been the President's view that without recognizing that we're in an ideological struggle, that we can't properly address the terrorist threat," Bolton said.

 

Bolton further stated that the strategy includes plans to "isolate" terror outfits from their revenue streams, thus helping the US and its allies' ability to thwart their threats more efficiently.

The new strategy document does not mention whether additional finances will be granted towards counterterrorism operations.

Bolton went on to highlight differences between Trump's and Obama's strategies, ridiculing questions on whether the new approach took into consideration the impact of climate change on terrorism, something Obama had considered in his approach, saying he didn't believe "climate change is a cause of international terrorism."

"It is a departure. And the reason is that it's not simply a unilateral decision by the United States to end this ideological war. It's not enough that we find it inconvenient that we're still under attack. The fact is the radical Islamic threat that we face is a form of ideology," Bolton said.

The new strategy comes 21 months after the election of Trump as the 45th US President. George Bush and Obama had approved their own versions of counterterrorism strategies in 2006 and 2011 respectively.