Donald Trump says he wants US troops to get out of Afghanistan 'as quickly as we can'

Washington: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he wants to get out of Afghanistan “as quickly as he can” and reiterated that the US should not have been in these wars.

The Trump administration has intensified its efforts in recent months to seek a negotiated settlement of America’s longest war in Afghanistan where the US has lost over 2,400 soldiers since late 2001 when it invaded the country after the 9/11 terror attacks.

US Special Envoy for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad is currently holding talks with the Taliban to work out an agreement for withdrawal of the US troops and participation of the rebel group in the Afghan government.

“We’ll continue to (pull out troops from Afghanistan). Well, we’re going to see. We’re working on negotiating a deal right now, as you probably have heard, and you know, at some point, we want to get out as quickly as we can,” Trump told C-Span in an interview.

His remarks come two days after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday that President Trump has ordered him to reduce the number of American troops in war-torn Afghanistan before the presidential elections in 2020.

During the presidential election campaign in 2016, Trump had pledged to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan and end America’s longest war.

“I want to get out of these crazy wars that we should’ve never been in,” Trump said in response to a question.

“These wars are — wars we could’ve done great damage through intelligence and other things and not having gotten in,” he asserted.

‘Have accomplished more than any US president in two and half years’

Trump, who completed two and a half years of his first term in the White House, on Wednesday also claimed that he has accomplished “more” than any US president in the same period.

During an interview with C-Span, Trump discussed his biggest disappointment and frustrations as president and his relationship with the media.

Asserting that he has “accomplished more maybe than any president has in two and a half years” Trump said that he has loved every minute of it.

“We’ve had fun. I think the biggest frustration is the way the media covers me, the way that the media covers perhaps this agenda, and I’m disappointed by it,” he said.

Trump, who was once considered to be the blue-eyed boy of the American media before he announced to enter politics and run for the top office in the country, said he is “very surprised” by the media coverage of his presidency.

“Generally, I think over my lifetime I’ve gotten pretty good press, and here, no matter how big a victory they really covered incorrectly. Hence, the term ‘fake news’, etc., etc. I’d say that’s been somewhat of a disappointment. I thought that after I won I was covered–I thought very poorly during the campaign. I thought after I won they’d be different, and actually, they’ve probably gotten worse,” he said.

When asked to define fake news, Trump said: “Well, you do something, and they report it incorrectly. The problem is that I would know and the public wouldn’t or that I think the public–a lot of the public believes me when I say it, so I would know what happened.”

“And when they cover it knowing what I know, and they cover it incorrectly, that to me is fake news, and it’s unfortunate that it takes place. But it does and at a level that I wouldn’t be believed and also with frequency. It’s pretty amazing, actually,” he said.

School shooting, he said has been his most difficult days. “When you have a school shooting, it’s tremendously–it angers me, actually, really angers me. It frustrates everybody. How could a thing like this happen, how is it possible. When you see innocent children being killed, teachers, that’s something that you just never can really get over,” he said.

Asked what has been his “biggest learning curve”, Trump said, “I think probably in terms of a learning curve it’s a little patience. It doesn’t go as quickly as it can do and as you do in private, but not that much different than I expected.”