Death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi a ‘major win’ for Trump, pundits

The death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is the “major win” President Trump needs during the lowest point in his presidency as he faces an impeachment inquiry and bipartisan criticism over his decision to withdraw troops from Syria.

“It’s a huge foreign policy accomplishment for President Trump, frankly, at time when he needed one,” said Republican strategist Mike Dennehy. “He’s been consistently attacked by his own Republican Party leaders and by the media and for him to be able to speak to the nation about his administration’s killing of the ISIS leader is nothing short of a grand slam for his re-election.”

Trump on Sunday announced al-Baghdadi died during an operation by U.S. special forces over the weekend and for Trump, the timing of the undeniable national security triumph couldn’t be better.

The president’s poll numbers have slipped amid the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into Trump’s request to the Ukrainian president to investigate the son of political foe Joe Biden.

He’s also facing criticism over his recent decision to pull most U.S. troops out of Syria — a move some thought could lead to a resurgence of ISIS — with some of the sharpest attacks coming from Senate Republicans.

“At least for time being, this will give him a reprieve from the daily attacks and frankly I expect his approval numbers to go up as a result,” Dennehy said.

The announcement proves that Trump has a behind-the-scenes strategy that works, said Howard Shatz, a senior economist and Islamic State expert at Rand Corp.

“This shows he is serious about maintaining some kind of fight against ISIS,” he said. “This is a major win for him.”

Shatz warned that al-Baghdadi’s death would not spell the end for the shadowy terror organization, noting there would be people waiting in the wings to take over the leadership role.

Scott Ferson, a Democratic Party strategist and former adviser to Sen. Seth Moulton, drew parallels to President Obama’s iconic announcement of Osama Bin Laden’s death in 2011.

“If killing Osama Bin Laden was a win for Obama, then this is a win for Trump,” Ferson said.

Trump tried to draw those same parallels in his speech to the nation on Sunday morning, arguing that al-Baghdadi was a more lethal and important target.

“Osama bin Laden was very big, but Osama bin Laden became big with the World Trade Center. This is a man who built a whole, as he would like to call it, a country, a caliphate, and was trying to do it again,” Trump said.

— Herald wire services contributed to this report.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2ooImfJ