Trump attacks Biden over Afghanistan ‘humiliation’ of US

Former President Donald Trump has launched a sustained attack on President Joe Biden’s handling of the retreat of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, which he called “the greatest foreign policy humiliation” in US history.

In a series of posts on his social media account, Trump repeatedly blamed Biden for Afghanistan’s fall to the Islamist militant Taliban, even though the US withdrawal that triggered the collapse was negotiated by his own administration.

“Biden’s botched exit from Afghanistan is the most astonishing display of gross incompetence by a nation’s leader, perhaps at any time,” Trump carried on the attack at a rally packed with his supporters Cullman, Alabama, on Saturday evening.

Trump blamed the situation on Biden not having followed the plan his administration came up with, and bemoaned US personnel and equipment being left behind as troops withdrew.

“This is not a withdrawal. This was a total a surrender,” he said.

He added that the Taliban, with whom he had negotiated, respected him and suggested the quick takeover of Afghanistan would not have happened if he was still in office.

“We could have gotten out with honor. We should have gotten out with honor. And instead, we got out with the exact opposite of honor.”

READ ALSO: Trump seeks Biden’s resignation in wake of Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan

Trump’s criticism of Biden came after US lawmaker, Liz Cheney, also tore into the President, saying Biden’s hopeless goal of using diplomacy to slow the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in the wake of his troop withdrawal was a disaster.

“When you look just at how the State Department, for example, is handling this, I mean, it’s an embarrassment, and it has a huge impact on America’s standing around the world,” Cheney had said in an interview.

“The State Department is setting up, you know, hashtags and saying the Taliban has an interest in coming to the table. ‘Let’s negotiate.’ The Taliban isn’t going to do anything like that.

“The Taliban also has to make an assessment about what they want their role to be in the international community.

“For the American State Department, you know, a superpower, the leader of the world, to have our spokesman up there talking about hashtags, it just makes us a laughingstock.

“It was wrong then, and it’s wrong now. Joe Biden, President Biden, made the decision to withdraw all of our forces, and what we’re seeing now is the consequence of that. And it really is devastating,” she said.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now