At a press conference Tuesday, President Trump followed up on <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/04/01/trump_us_military_will_be_coming_out_of_syria_like_very_soon.html"> much-discussed comments he made at a rally in Ohio on Thursday about the U.S. military ending its presence in Syria</a>. "By the way, we're knocking the hell out of ISIS. We'll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon. Let the other people take care of it now," <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/04/01/trump_us_military_will_be_coming_out_of_syria_like_very_soon.html">Trump said Thursday</a>. "Very soon -- very soon we're coming out. We're going to have 100 percent of the caliphate, as they call it... But we're going to be coming out of there real soon. Going to get back to our country, where we belong, where we want to be." At Tuesday's press conference he said: "I want to get out [of Syria]. I want to bring our troops back home. I want to start rebuilding our nation." "We will have, as of three months ago, spent $7 trillion in the Middle East the last seven years," he also said. "We get nothing out of it, nothing." He opined: "Seven trillion dollars over 17 year period, we have nothing — nothing except death and destruction. It’s a horrible thing." "So it is time. It is time." "We were very successful against ISIS. We’ll be successful against anybody militarily," he also said. "But sometimes it is time to come back home. And we’re thinking about that very seriously." <blockquote>PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: As far as Syria is concerned, our primary mission in terms of that was getting rid of ISIS. We've almost completed that task. And we'll be making a decision very quickly in coordination with others in the area as to what we'll do. Saudi Arabia is very interested in our decision. And I said, well, you know, you want us to stay, maybe you're going to have to pay. But we do a lot of things in this country. We do them for -- we do them for a lot of reasons. But it is very costly for our country. And it helps other countries a hell of a lot more than it helps us. So we're going to be making a decision. We've had a tremendous military success against ISIS as you know. It is close to 100% as I just said. And we’ll be making a decision as to what we do in the very near future. We’ll be consulting also with the groups of our people and groups of our allies. QUESTION: Are you inclined to pull the troops out? TRUMP: I want to get out. I want to bring our troops back home. I want to start rebuilding our nation. We will have, as of three months ago, $7 trillion in the Middle East the last seven years. We get nothing out of it, nothing. And as you remember, in civilian life, for years I said keep the oil. I was always saying keep the oil. We didn’t keep the oil. Who got the oil? It was ISIS got the oil. A lot of it. That’s what funded their campaigns. They took a lot of the oil, and it was largely responsible for funding. We should have kept the oil then. We didn’t keep the oil. So I want to get back and rebuild our nation. Think of it. Seven trillion dollars over 17 year period, we have nothing — nothing except death and destruction. It’s a horrible thing. So it is time. It is time. We were very successful against ISIS. We’ll be successful against anybody militarily. But sometimes it is time to come back home. And we’re thinking about that very seriously.</blockquote>