The US announced a sharp cut Wednesday to troop numbers in Iraq

The US announced a sharp cut Wednesday to troop numbers in Iraq, as President Donald Trump seeks to honor his pledge to halt the country’s “endless wars” overseas, with just two months to go until the election.

The move, reducing the Pentagon’s footprint in Iraq from 5,000 military personnel to just 3,000, and an expected parallel announcement on Afghanistan, comes as Trump strives to cast himself as a peacemaker as he fights an uphill battle to stay in power.

General Kenneth McKenzie, the head of the US military’s Central Command, said during an event in Baghdad that the decision was “due to our confidence in the Iraqi security forces’ increased ability to operate independently.”

That would take the US presence there to its lowest level since Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama cut troops to a token force in 2012 in a previous attempt to end the then nine-year-old war.