White House hails Trump's anti-terror efforts

US President Donald Trump has made great strides in defeating ISIS and tackling the threat of terrorism around the world, the White House has said.
It cited the suspension of Pakistan's security aid as an example of Trump telling the US' allies that they cannot be America's friends while supporting or condoning terror.
"President Trump has made great strides in fulfilling his promise to defeat ISIS and tackle the threat of terror around the world," the White House said yesterday in a statement.
Terror group ISIS, the White House said, has lost nearly 100 per cent of its former caliphate while more than 50 per cent of the territory liberated from ISIS has been liberated under the Trump administration, it said.

"Trump is committed to destroying ISIS, and the global coalition will hunt these terrorists wherever they hide," the statement said.
The White House said that by suspending the security assistance to Pakistan, Trump has sent a "long overdue" message to the recipients of American foreign aid that the administration expects them to fully join the US in combating terrorism.

"In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, President Trump called on representatives of over 50 Muslim-majority nations to do more to combat terror and extremist ideology," it said.
Observing that Trump has made "strong and necessary" moves to deter threats to the US, the White House said he has led and executed an international maximum pressure campaign against North Korea to compel it to denuclearise and cease its dangerous provocations.

"The president has rallied world powers in support of increasing economic and diplomatic pressure. The global maximum pressure campaign appears to be working North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has committed to ceasing provocations and expressed willingness to denuclearise," it said.
Trump has agreed to meet with Kim Jong-Un and will use this opportunity to hold the regime to its commitment to denuclearise the Korean peninsula, the statement said.
The White House said Trump has taken aggressive action to confront Iran's "threatening behaviour", including imposing sanctions on dozens of Iran-linked entities and refusing to re-certify the Iran deal.
"The president ordered missile strikes in Syria, in opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad following his use of chemical weapons against his own people. In doing so, the president stood up for the global norms against the use of chemical weapons," the White House said.

On February 9, Trump signed a two-year budget deal raising the military's budget caps for national defense to USD 700 billion for Fiscal Year 2018 and USD 716 billion for Fiscal Year 2019.
Raising the budget caps fulfills Trump's promise to end years of harmful sequestration budget restraints on our military and will help the military rebuild.
"The The budget deal provides for funding levels that would support for thousands more troops and billions more in funding for missile defense," the White House said.