The meeting Wednesday was created to tee up final decisions for the president in what has been a long and hard policy review, said current and former US officials. "It is not a permanent cap", Mr. Roggio said.
Mattis has been developing a new strategy for the 16-year-old war in Afghanistan that was expected to meet Nicholson's long-standing request for 3,000-5,000 more us troops. The unveiling of that strategy is behind schedule.
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis clarified on Friday that while the Defense Department now has authority to set troop numbers for Afghanistan, President Donald Trump is still setting the strategy that will drive those numbers. "He delegated not one bit of the strategy by the way".
With the Pentagon poised to announce details of a troop increase for the US mission in Afghanistan, the pending decision raises questions about the effect additional boots on the ground will have on the 16-year conflict.
"You fight wars for a reason", he said.
The Trump administration is doing a comprehensive review of its Afghan policy.
Sean Spicer resigns, Sarah Huckabee Sanders named next White House press secretary
Scaramucci had also challenged Trump to criticise him, saying he'll be the president of the "Queens County bullies association". He had also accused Trump of engaging in "anti-American rhetoric".
National security adviser H.R. McMaster and USA commanders in Afghanistan have pressed for a more punitive approach to Pakistan aimed at forcing it to cut ties to the Afghan Taliban.
The Pentagon is withholding $50 million in military reimbursements to Pakistan that it had yet to deliver for fiscal year 2016, signaling displeasure with Islamabad's failed efforts against the Haqqani network.
Trump has said little about America's longest war since taking office in January, but the debate over how to stabilize the country and reverse the Taliban's momentum has divided top officials in the Pentagon, the State Department and the White House in recent weeks. "This is an assessment of the current state of play", he said.
It was after the meeting that the president remarked on the ISIS before a group of reporters. That encounter, which some witnesses have said lasted nearly an hour, relied exclusively on a Kremlin-provided interpreter and was initially not disclosed by the White House, has brought sharp criticism of the president.
Mr. Mattis said that there was nothing wrong with the president's seeking out Mr. Putin that evening, and that such dinners were a venue for adversaries to chat.
The meeting that Trump led in the White House did not focus on the size of the American force in Afghanistan but looked at America's broader approach to the region and its strategy regarding Pakistan, which has provided a haven for the Taliban.
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