But on Wednesday Mr Trump said the U.S. did not endorse Turkey's assault on northern Syria and had made it clear to Ankara that its incursion against Kurdish fighters who helped the USA battle the Islamic State (IS) group was a "bad idea".
"Our aim is to destroy the terror corridor which is trying to be established on our southern border and to bring peace and peace to the region", Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tweeted as he announced the start of the operation.
Turkey views Kurdish YPG fighters in northeast Syria as terrorists due to their ties to militants waging an insurgency inside Turkey, an influx of non-Kurdish Syrians would help it secure a buffer against its main security threat.
In its call for mobilization, the local Kurdish authority known as the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria also urged the global community to live up to its responsibilities as "a humanitarian catastrophe might befall our people" in the region.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
Turkey has said it intends to create a "safe zone" in order to return millions of refugees to Syrian soil.
The minister defended his country's right to launch an operation in northeastern Syria.
What does Turkey want in northern Syria?
But Ankara says the assault is necessary to curb the power of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) due to their ties with Kurdish insurgents inside Turkey.
In northeast Syria, Kurds are holding thousands of captured fighters and their families from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) group. "Operation has not been launched yet", the official told Agence France-Presse. I hope we can turn the fight against ISIS over to Turkey.
The Kurdish forces led the fight against the Islamic State group but Erdogan links them to separatist militants at home, branding them "terrorists".
A senior administration official said the United States had leaned heavily on the SDF to reduce its fortifications in those areas, under the idea that Turkey would then not invade.
Al Jazeera's Charles Stratford reports live from Akcaklae, near the Turkish-Syria border.
"This morning, Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member, invaded Syria", the White House said in a statement.
In its call for a general mobilisation, the local civilian Kurdish authority known as the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, also asked the worldwide community to live up to its responsibilities as "a humanitarian catastrophe might befall our people".
Confronted by the prospect of US withdrawal a year ago, the Kurds beat a path to Damascus for talks over allowing the Syrian government and its ally Russian Federation to deploy at the border.
Turkey has long threatened an attack on the Kurdish fighters in Syria whom Ankara considers terrorists allied with a Kurdish insurgency within Turkey.
At the same time, he has also praised Turkey, inviting Erdogan to visit the White House on November 13, while calling Ankara a "big trading partner" and crediting the Turkish government with "helping me to save many lives at Idlib Province".
"Fighting between various groups that has been going on for hundreds of years", Trump said.
On Monday, Trump said he was "not siding with anybody" - Kurdish forces or the Turkish government - and reiterated an earlier warning to Turkey about potential economic devastation.
The Kurds also said they want the US -led coalition to set up a no-fly zone in northeastern Syria to protect the civilian population from Turkish airstrikes.
"Strike them with an iron fist, make them taste the hell of your fires", the National Army, the main Turkey-backed rebel force, told its fighters in a statement.
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