--- title: President Trump Orders Review of Strategy to Fight ISIS description: President Donald Trump ordered the Joint Chiefs of Staff to begin a 30-day review of the nation's strategy to combat ISIS canonical: https://time.com/4652696/president-trump-isis-review/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-28T22:20:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T12:33:24.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Orders 30-Day Review of Strategy to Fight ISIS og:description: Trump called for "a plan to accomplish the defeat of ISIS," within 30 days og:url: https://time.com/4652696/president-trump-isis-review/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt67e26557f412c3a4/6988b7bdfb4eaca06389093c/trump24.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4689 og:image:height: 2638 og:image:alt: Donald Trump Speaks With Russian Leader Vladimir Putin From The White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Orders 30-Day Review of Strategy to Fight ISIS twitter:description: Trump called for "a plan to accomplish the defeat of ISIS," within 30 days twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt67e26557f412c3a4/6988b7bdfb4eaca06389093c/trump24.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Orders 30-Day Review of Strategy to Fight ISIS > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Updated: Dec 13, 2023 12:33 PM UTCPublished: Jan 28, 2017 10:20 PM UTC  President Trump speaks on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Oval Office of the White House, Jan. 28, 2017 in Washington, DC. President Trump speaks on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Oval Office of the White House, Jan. 28, 2017 in Washington, DC.Drew Angerer—Getty Images by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Updated: Dec 13, 2023 12:33 PM UTCPublished: Jan 28, 2017 10:20 PM UTC President [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4652641/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-phone-call/) ordered members of his Cabinet and the Joint Chiefs of Staff Saturday to begin a 30-day review of the nation’s strategy to combat [ISIS](http://time.com/4651729/president-trump-refugee-suspension-backfire/), as he seeks to intensify the U.S. campaign against the extremist group that holds swaths of territory in [Iraq](http://time.com/4652607/iraqi-refugees-detained-president-trump-lawsuit/) and [Syria](http://time.com/4644036/donald-trump-russia-syria-joint-strikes/). In the formal executive memorandum, Trump declared that “It is the policy of the United States that ISIS be defeated.” The the public signing before television cameras, rather than a private request to the Pentagon, was designed to “convey to the world and to our allies the strength of our resolve,” a senior administration official said. “It represents a profound statement on the part of the United States that we are committed to ending this atrocity, which is necessary from a national security standpoint, but the intended results include saving an unknowably large number of people on a humanitarian level as well,” the official said. The memorandum orders the Pentagon, the intelligence community, and key Cabinet agencies to develop a comprehensive plan to defeat the extremist group. including reviewing the existing rules of engagement, developing public diplomacy and digital strategies to combat and discredit the group online, identifying new coalition partners, determining how to cut off the group’s funding, and paying for the ongoing campaign against the Islamic State. On the campaign trial, Trump frequently warned of the spread of ISIS, and promised to “knock the hell out of” the group if elected. “I know more about ISIS than the generals do,” he declared in November 2015\. “Believe me.” U.S. forces have carried out more than 200 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since Trump’s inauguration, roughly the same pace as during the waning days of the Obama administration. The official blamed ISIS and radical groups like it for “the genocide of Yazidis, and the genocide of Christians and Kurds and many other groups historically and recently in the Middle East.” The use of the term genocide represents a significant break from the Obama administration, which faced criticism for deciding against using the phrase. One key measure the generals will weigh is whether to use more aggressive tactics on the battlefield, though those come with greater risks of civilian casualties. They will also examine existing U.S. troop levels in Iraq and Syria. In a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin Saturday, Trump and his counterpart agreed to increase cooperation between the two countries’ militaries in the fight against ISIS, the Kremlin said in a statement. It was not immediately clear whether the results of the review would be made public, as Trump has argued against discussing the U.S. strategy against ISIS publicly to maintain the element of surprise. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4652696/president-trump-isis-review/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4652696/president-trump-isis-review/"},"headline":"President Trump Orders 30-Day Review of Strategy to Fight ISIS","datePublished":"2017-01-28T22:20:54.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T12:33:24.000Z","description":"Trump called for \"a plan to accomplish the defeat of ISIS,\" within 30 days","url":"https://time.com/4652696/president-trump-isis-review/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt67e26557f412c3a4/6988b7bdfb4eaca06389093c/trump24.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt67e26557f412c3a4/6988b7bdfb4eaca06389093c/trump24.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump Speaks With Russian Leader Vladimir Putin From The White House","caption":"Donald Trump Speaks With Russian Leader Vladimir Putin From The White House","creditText":"Drew Angerer—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4652696/president-trump-isis-review/","name":"President Trump Orders 30-Day Review of Strategy to Fight ISIS"}}]}] ```