According to the Defense Manpower Data Center, almost 30,000 US service members are deployed in the three countries. The report, which provides data current as of September 30, states there are 8,892 personnel in Iraq, 15,298 in Afghanistan, and 1,720 in Syria.
By comparison, under Obama, there were 7,538 total DoD personnel in Iraq, 12,966 in Afghanistan, and 279 in Syria. The most recent Defense Manpower Data Center report completed during the Obama administration from December 2016 shows that 275,850 soldiers were stationed overseas. Under Trump's watch, this figure has ticked up to 290,984 foreign deployments.
In December of last year, Trump claimed, "we don't want to have a depleted military because we're all over the place fighting in areas that we shouldn't be fighting in. It's not going to be depleted any longer."
US President Donald Trump campaigned on reducing America's footprint abroad to focus on nation building in the US, but the data show this promise has not been kept.
We have wasted an enormous amount of blood and treasure in Afghanistan. Their government has zero appreciation. Let's get out!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 21, 2013
And in 2013, Trump blasted Obama over Twitter stating that Obama wanted to "protect al-Qaeda Islamists" in Syria. "Syria is NOT our problem," Trump said.
Further, Trump used voting histories on the Iraq War to discredit political opponents. While in power, though, Trump has only intensified the US military effort abroad. "Hillary voted for the Iraq war, not me!" Trump tweeted July 2016.
In 2015, Trump tweeted, "Dummy political pundit @krauthammer constantly pressed the crazy war in Iraq. Many lives lost and trillions of dollars wasted. U.S. got NOTHING!"
Two weeks later, Trump raked The Weekly Standard's Charles Krauthammer over the coals once again, tweeting, "Has @krauthammer ever apologized for being so totally wrong on Iraq? I called it right in every way-Make America Great Again!"
In September 2015, Trump focused his crosshairs on Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio.
"Senator Marco ‘amnesty' Rubio, who has the worst voting record in the Senate, just hit me on national security-but I said I don't go into Iraq. VISION."
Senator Marco "amnesty" Rubio, who has worst voting record in Senate, just hit me on national security-but I said don't go into Iraq. VISION
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 23, 2015
You heard it from Trump yourself: VISION.
