MILITARY/NONTRUTHS/TERRORISM/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump on Tuesday [1-30-18] delivered his first State of the Union address, and CNN’s Reality Check Team was there to vet his claims.
The team of reporters, researchers and editors across CNN listened throughout the speech and analyzed key statements, rating them either true, true but misleading, or false….
ISIS territorial loss…
‘Last year, I pledged that we would work with our allies to extinguish ISIS from the face of the earth,’ Trump said Tuesday. ‘One year later, I’m proud to report that the coalition to defeat ISIS has liberated very close to 100% of the territory just recently held by these killers in Iraq and in Syria.’
There is no doubt the military campaign to defeat ISIS has claimed major victories in the past year. The terror group was expelled from their self-proclaimed capital in Raqqa, Syria, as well as its onetime stronghold in Mosul, Iraq….
Verdict: True. The US-led coalition cannot yet declare victory in its effort to defeat ISIS. But at this moment, as Trump addresses Congress, the group is clearly in retreat, and has experienced significant territorial losses. The United States now faces the challenge of securing and expanding those territorial losses, preventing an ISIS resurgence, and — at least in Syria — determining who will govern that space in the long-term.”
-CNN’s Reality Check Team, “CNN’s Reality Check Team vets Trump’s State of the Union,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, Jan. 31, 2018 09:46am