President Trump has made a variation of this claim repeatedly over the months, starting in July, when he proclaimed: “In five months we have done more against ISIS than anybody’s done since the beginning and we are having tremendous success with that.”

Every month since then, he has repeated the claim, simply updating the number of months. For instance, on Sept. 7, he said, “We have done better in eight months of my presidency than the previous eight years against ISIS.” (Never mind that the Islamic State terror group emerged as a significant force in Iraq and Syria in 2013, when it captured and raised its flag over Fallujah) …

“There were no significant changes in the overall plan in combating ISIS,” said Ali Soufan, chief executive of The Soufan Group, and a former FBI agent who specialized in international terrorism cases. “What we are witnessing today is  mostly the fruits of what the former administration started …”