US President Donald Trump believes that America’s longest war needs to some
to an end and that he is going ahead with his plans to withdraw his troops
from Afghanistan, a top Republican Senator said on Wednesday after a
meeting with the president.

“The president does acknowledge that America’s longest war does need to
come to a close and that we need to learn how to declare victory,”
Republican Senator Rand Paul told reporters in a conference call after his
one on one meeting with Trump at the White House.

Soon thereafter Trump also met a group of Republican Senators, including
John Cornyn, Marco Rubio, Joni Ernst, Dan Sullivan and Mike Rounds. But
except for Paul, Trump does not have much support among his own party
lawmakers who are against withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

Last month, multiple media reports said Trump has asked the Pentagon to
plan for sizeable reduction of troops from Afghanistan. Weeks later the
White House denied reports of reduction of troops from Afghanistan. On
Wednesday, according to Paul, Trump is on his way to make announcement of
troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“Not only is he following through with his Syria policy, I really do think
there will be changes in Afghanistan as well,” he said. “In general, the
idea is that we’re going to do things differently. We’re not going to stay
forever. The Afghans will have to step up,” Paul said.

“It’s not that we’ll do nothing … we’ll probably still be there longer
than I would like,” Paul said. “If you look at the polling data for the
American people, I think the American people are with the president and
they’re tired, frankly, of both parties who are unwilling to stand up and
say enough is enough,” he said.

“We talked extensively about Syria. He talked about how we will continue
to make sure that ISIS is not a problem but at the same time, we will not
just go into theater and stay forever. I think he was steadfast in that,”
he said.