Former president Donald Trump labeled the Biden administration’s handling of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan the “greatest embarrassment in the history of our country,” in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Tuesday.
“I don’t think in all of the years our country has ever been so humiliated. I don’t know if you call it a military defeat or a psychological defeat,” Trump said.
Criticizing President Biden, Trump said the U.S. needs “a president that’s respected.”
The comments come amid a chaotic withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, with Taliban fighters now in control of the country. Biden has said he stands by the withdrawal, although he noted that he “inherited” a deal for withdrawal negotiated by Trump.
“I inherited a deal that President Trump negotiated with the Taliban. Under his agreement, U.S. forces would be out of Afghanistan by May 1, 2021, just a little over three months after I took office,” Biden said on Monday. (The Biden administration extended that deadline to September.)
The Trump administration brokered a deal between the Afghan government and the Taliban in February 2020 intended to set the stage for an eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. When asked about the deal, Trump claimed he threatened to strike the village of Taliban leader Mullah Baradar if “anything bad” happened to Americans during a troop withdrawal.
“I told him upfront . . . if anything bad happens to Americans . . . we will hit you with a force that no country has ever been hit with before,” Trump said. “And your village — and we know where it is, and I named it — will be the first one: the first bombs will be dropped right there.”
However, Trump also criticized U.S. involvement in the Middle East over the past two decades.
“I know the Bush family will not be happy, but I believe it was the worst decision in the history of our country when we decided to go into the Middle East,” Trump said. “It’s turned out to be quicksand. And do you think it’s better now than it was 20, 21 years ago? It’s much worse.”
Source: National Review
