President Trump has faced bipartisan criticism over his decision to withdraw troops from Syria. Most notably, Jim Mattis resigned as secretary of defense in protest. Trump’s answer to the critiques? He tweeted: “I campaigned on getting out of Syria and other places. … Just doing what I said I was going to do!” His allies on Fox News similarly defended the president’s withdrawal by arguing, “This is one of the reasons people voted for him.” But Trump’s strongest supporters in the 2016 election were hardly isolationists. In fact, Trump supporters in the Republican primary were actually more hawkish about sending troops to Iraq and Syria than other Republican voters.

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