ISIS has formally claimed responsibility for the terror attack that hit New York earlier this week. The driver of the vehicle had already claimed to have been influenced by ISIS, but the terror group announcing they are responsible is the formal acknowledgment that, despite their routing in Syria, they are still actively plotting against the West.

ISIS claimed responsibility on Thursday for the truck attack on Halloween in Lower Manhattan that left eight people dead and a dozen injured.

“One of the soldiers of the Islamic State attacked a number of crusaders on a street in New York City, close to the monument for the 9/11 raid, which resulted in killing and wounding more than 60 crusaders, and unto Allah is all praise,” the terror group said in its weekly newsletter, according to a translation by SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks extremist groups.

ISIS called suspect Sayfullo Saipov “one of the soldiers of the Caliphate.” It’s not clear why they misstated the number of dead and wounded.

“The grace of Allah, the operation instilled fear in crusader America, prompting them to increase security measures and intensify actions against immigrants to America,” the newsletter said.

After the announcement, the President let his followers know that New York’s citizens did not go unavenged.

ISIS just claimed the Degenerate Animal who killed, and so badly wounded, the wonderful people on the West Side, was "their soldier." …..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017

…Based on that, the Military has hit ISIS "much harder" over the last two days. They will pay a big price for every attack on us!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017

ISIS has fallen on hard times recently. Their strongholds in Syria have been largely eradicated, thanks to combined forces in the region.

It is unclear from the President’s tweets what part the US actually played in those battles, and it is also unclear how the military hit back harder over the last two days if ISIS has only just announced they were responsible.

Still, the President is certainly more outspoken than his predecessor on the subject of ISIS, so that’s something.