DONALD WHO?:

Trump, hosting three visiting Baltic heads-of-state at the White House, reiterated his desire to withdraw from Syria, three and a half years after the U.S. began fighting the Islamic State there.

"I want to get out. I want to bring our troops back home. I want to start rebuilding our nation," he said.

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Simultaneously at the U.S. Institute of Peace, less than a mile away from that White House podium as the crow flies, top military and diplomatic leaders made the case for continuing the U.S. military mission against ISIS in Syria, a longer presence in Iraq, and significant non-military funding for stability operations and reconstruction for things like restarting electricity services and de-mining the booby-trapped rubble Iraqi and Syrian cities that were leveled in some part by American air strikes.

First among their concerns is the fact that ISIS still maintains a foothold in Syria.

"In Iraq I think we're in a pretty good place security-wise... the situation in Syria is a little bit different,"  said Gen. Joseph Votel, who leads U.S. Central Command. "Well over 90 percent of the caliphate that they controlled, particularly in the north and eastern portions of the country, has been liberated. But there still are some areas where they are present and that we will continue to have to operate on."

The top diplomat leading America's counter-ISIS fight, State Department special envoy Brett McGurk, echoed that warning.

"I think we're ahead of where we thought we would be at this time, as Gen. Votel said, but we're not finished," he said. "And we have to work through some very difficult issues as we speak."

The 2,000 or so troops the Pentagon acknowledges it has in Syria have a role in solving those issues, Votel said.

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