WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump on Monday targeted Pakistan on Twitter, accusing Islamabad of "lies & deceit" and not doing enough to control militants.
The tweets came from Trump's private club in Palm Beach, Fla., before the president returned to the White House on Monday night to face a hefty legislative to-do list, critical midterm elections and threats abroad.
Trump said the U.S. had given Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid over the past 15 years, "and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!"
Pakistani Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif tweeted that his government was preparing a response that "will let the world know the truth."
"America is frustrated over defeat in Afghanistan," Asif said on Pakistan's Urdu language Geo Television. "America should take the path of dialogue instead of using military might in Afghanistan."
Pakistani Defense Minister Khurram Dastgir-Khan also tweeted that Pakistan, as an "anti-terror ally" of the United States, had given Washington land and air communication, military bases and intelligence cooperation that "decimated Al-Qaida over last 16 yrs" while America "has given us nothing but invective & mistrust."
U.S. Ambassador David Hale was summoned to the Foreign Ministry to discuss the president's statement, U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Snelsire said. Pakistan lodged a strongly worded protest and asked for clarification of Trump's comments, according to two foreign office officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Officials in Pakistan's capital arranged a Cabinet meeting to be held today to adopt a response to Trump's remarks, while Asif said the country is ready to publicly provide an accounting of "every detail" of U.S. aid it has received.
Pakistan was already doing all it could to combat terrorism within its borders, he said, "so Trump's 'no more' does not hold any importance."
Late Monday afternoon, White House spokesman Raj Shah said the White House does not plan to spend $255 million in fiscal 2016 military aid to Pakistan already appropriated by Congress. That decision was first reported by CNN. The payment has been on hold since August, out of the Trump administration's insistence that Pakistan do more to crack down on extremists who threaten Afghanistan.
According to a November report from the Congressional Research Service, the United States has appropriated $34 billion in direct aid and military reimbursements for Pakistan since 2002, with proposed security and economic assistance at $345 million for this fiscal year. That number is a significant decrease from the $526 million allotted in fiscal 2017.
Afghanistan's ambassador to the U.S., Hamdullah Mohib, welcomed Trump's tweet.
"A promising message to Afghans who have suffered at the hands of terrorists based in Pakistan for far too long," Mohib tweeted.
Afghanistan and the U.S. have long accused Pakistan of providing safe havens to terrorists. Pakistan's former adviser on foreign affairs, Sartaj Aziz, had previously publicly stated that Afghan militants have been living for decades in Pakistan.
The Taliban are believed to run several leadership councils out of Pakistan, in southwestern Quetta and northwestern Peshawar, two cities on the border with Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has accused Afghanistan of harboring its militants and has sent a list of wanted terrorist to the Afghan government demanding they be returned. Kabul too sent a list of wanted insurgents to Islamabad as well as locations of training camps.
In India -- Pakistan's arch-rival -- news of Trump's tweet was met with celebration in some quarters, a healthy dose of skepticism in others. Analysts pointed out that in October Trump had tweeted that the administration was "starting to develop a much better relationship with Pakistan and its leaders."
FOCUS ON 2018
Trump plans to host Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin at Camp David next weekend to map out the 2018 legislative agenda. Republicans are eager to make progress before attention shifts to the midterm elections, where the GOP will work to hold its House and Senate majorities.
The president concluded 2017 with his first major legislative achievement -- a law to cut taxes, beginning this year, for corporations and individuals at an estimated cost of $1.5 trillion added to the national debt over 10 years. The tax overhaul also will end the requirement, in 2019, that all Americans buy health insurance or pay a fine. That's a key component of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act from President Barack Obama's first term. Other features of the law remain intact.
The White House has said Trump will come forward with his long-awaited infrastructure plan in January. Trump has also said he wants to overhaul welfare and recently predicted Democrats and Republicans will "eventually come together" to develop a new health care plan.
Ryan has talked about overhauling Medicaid and Medicare and other safety-net programs, but McConnell has signaled an unwillingness to go that route unless there's Democratic support for any changes. Republicans will have just a 51-49 Senate majority -- well shy of the 60 votes needed to pass most bills.
On Iran, Trump kept up his drumbeat in support of widespread anti-government protests there. He tweeted Monday that Iran is "failing at every level" and it is "TIME FOR CHANGE."
While some Iranians have shared Trump's tweets, many distrust him as he's refused to recertify the nuclear deal that eased sanctions on the country and because his travel bans have blocked Iranians from getting U.S. visas.
Although Trump has targeted a number of countries, critics say he has not sufficiently focused on China, where construction in the South China Sea last year included hangars, missile shelters and large radar and sensor arrays, according to satellite images reviewed by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, a U.S. think tank.
China claims nearly all of the South China sea. In 2016, an international tribunal ruled against those claims, but the finding has largely been ignored -- both by the Philippines, which brought the case, and by China.
Though Chinese reclamation and building predate Trump, many expected him to push back more forcefully than the previous administration.
The National Security Strategy released last month does mention China's "efforts to build and militarize outposts in the South China Sea endanger the free flow of trade, threaten the sovereignty of other nations, and undermine regional stability."
But experts see few signs the issue is a White House priority.
"Nobody in the White House is super focused on South China Sea stuff, at least as far as we know," said Julian Ku, a law professor at Hofstra University School of Law and an expert on the South China Sea. "I think it's going to remain on the back burner and that's definitely going to help the Chinese."
Information for this article was contributed by Catherine Lucey, Kathy Gannon and Zarar Khan of The Associated Press; by Shaiq Hussein, Emily Rauhala, Shirley Feng and Annie Gowen of The Washington Post; and by Aoun Sahi and Shashank Bengali of the Los Angeles Times.
A Section on 01/02/2018