US President Donald Trump repeated his jarring statement about quickly ending the war in Afghanistan, using terms similar to those in a July statement that prompted the Afghan government to ask for clarification.

Addressing a news conference with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday, Trump said the United States could rapidly end the nearly 19-year war in Afghanistan but it would involve killing “tens of millions” of people.

“We’ve been very effective in Afghanistan, and if we wanted to do a certain method of war, we would win that very quickly, but many, many, really, tens of millions of people would be killed, and we think it’s unnecessary,” Trump said. 

Similar comments were made by Trump in July during an Oval Office meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan. There, Trump claimed he could win the war “in a week” but said he did not want to go that route, because “I just don’t want to kill 10 million people.”

Trump earlier this month called off negotiations with the Taliban, and subsequently said the talks with the group are “dead.”