US Donald Donald Trump has appeared to water down plans for an immediate pullout of US troops from Syria, even as he defiantly claimed that his achievements in the conflict should make him a “national hero”, The Guardian reported.

The tweeted comment on Monday came the day after a senior Republican senator said the US president had promised to stay in Syria to finish the job of destroying the Islamic State group – days after he shocked allies, and his own military establishment, by saying troops were coming home.

“If anybody but Donald Trump did what I did in Syria, which was an Isis-loaded mess when I became president, they would be a national hero,” he tweeted.

“Isis is mostly gone, we’re slowly sending our troops back home to be with their families, while at the same time fighting Isis remnants,” he said.

Trump tweeted on Monday: “I campaigned on getting out of Syria and other places. Now when I start getting out the Fake News Media, or some failed Generals who were unable to do the job before I arrived, like to complain about me & my

tactics, which are working.”