Former Trump official expects president-elect to pull troops from one nation after Biden sent them back

A former official in President-elect Donald Trump’s first administration said he believes he will likely pull troops out of Somalia after President Joe Biden sent troops back in, reversing Trump’s first withdrawal of forces, Stars and Stripes reported on Monday.

J. Peter Pham, special envoy to Africa’s Sahel region during Trump’s first term, told Stars and Stripes that the president-elect will likely withdraw troops from the war-torn nation due to a lack of U.S. national security interest in the region. Biden went back on Trump’s initial 700 troop withdrawal in 2020, sending 500 service members back to Somalia to continue a “persistent presence” in the nation.

The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

“I would expect that President Trump will want to reverse course and restore things to where he intended at the end of 2020,” Pham told Stars and Stripes. “Quite frankly, as the corruption of even allegedly elite units like Danab has underscored, we do not have an effective partner in Mogadishu, and there are no U.S. national security interests that justify risking American treasure — much less American blood — in Somalia that cannot be handled offshore or from nearby bases.”

U.S. troops were initially deployed to Somalia in 2007 to combat al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist group al-Shabaab, mainly conducting air strikes against the group, according to AirWars.com.

Former Trump Defense Secretary Mark Esper wrote in his book “A Sacred Oath” that Trump was always skeptical about the U.S. presence in Somalia as part of AFRICOM’s mission to stabilize the region, according to Stars and Stripes.

“[He] didn’t see much value in having any Americans, whether they be military personnel or diplomats, based anywhere on the continent,” Esper wrote. “The bottom line was that Trump wanted out of Africa completely, and Somalia now seemed to be the start point.”

Trump is expected to make China a larger issue during his administration, which could pull resources from other places like Somalia, according to Stars and Stripes. Recently, Trump named Elbridge Colby as undersecretary of defense for policy at the Pentagon, who is a proponent of reorienting foreign policy to mainly focus on the Pacific region.

“At the very least, a complete blank slate review of U.S. policy toward the Somali failed state should be undertaken before investing any more American resources,” Pham told Stars and Stripes.

The White House did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

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