Donald Trump: We will no longer race to overthrow foreign regimes

New US President Donald Trump presented a new US military policy that avoids intervention in foreign conflicts and focuses on the goal of defeating militant ISIL, writes The Guardian, Patria reports.

"We will stop racing to overthrow foreign regimes that we know nothing about, in which we should not be involved," said the new president on Tuesday evening in Fayetteville, near a military base in North Carolina. "Instead, we must focus on defeating terrorism and destroying ISIL, and we will succeed in that," the president added.

Trump publicly shared his vision a few hours after outgoing President Barack Obama addressed the public on national security.

Without naming Trump, Obama warned his successor to stop the inflammatory rhetoric promoting a war on terror and to avoid actions that could give false legitimacy to ISIL as the "leader of a new world order".

"Instead of making false promises that we can eliminate terrorism by dropping bombs or engaging more troops, or by building a fence around ourselves against the rest of the world, we must carefully examine the threat of terrorism and choose a smart and sustainable strategy," Obama emphasized, addressing the audience at MacDill Air Force Base.

During the election campaign, Trump vowed to "bomb ISIL to its core" and routinely refused to offer an anti-terrorism strategy, stating that he would thus reveal his plans to the enemy.

He also suggested that terrorists were moving along the entire US border disguised as refugees and proposed an aggressive policy that included a ban on Muslim immigration to the US.

At the last stop of his thank-you tour of states that decided the outcome of the November 8 election, he also introduced his choice for Secretary of Defense, General James Mattis.

Trump also spoke about the need for a major overhaul of the US military, which he says is too "stretched thin." Instead of investing in wars, he believes they should invest in rebuilding old roads, bridges, and airports in the US.

However, he wants to increase investment in the military.

"We don't want a depleted military – we have people everywhere, fighting in places where we shouldn't be fighting. It will no longer be depleted," Trump stated categorically.

He also said that any nation that shares his goals will be considered an American partner.

"We do not forget. We intend to strengthen old friendships and create new ones. However, our policy of 'intervention and chaos' must stop."

While the US military is engaged worldwide, in terms of active combat, it is only involved in the Middle East, primarily in Iraq and Syria.

"We will build our military to act preventively, not aggressively. In short, we seek peace through strength," Trump stated.

Trump used similar rhetoric during his election campaign when he spoke against the war in Iraq. Unusually for a Republican, Trump not only spoke openly against George W. Bush's intervention in 2003 but also accused Bush of lying about the presence of weapons of mass destruction.

Trump has long opposed US external interference in activities he called "nation-building."

Last October, he told The Guardian: "We are building nations. We can't do that. We need to build our own nation. And we are building nations, telling people who have lived under dictators for centuries how to run their countries."

"Assad is bad," Trump said of the Syrian president. "But maybe these others could be even worse."

At the rally in Fayetteville, Trump did not explicitly reiterate his intention to ban Muslims from entering the US, but he said he would "suspend immigration from regions where it cannot be processed with certainty."