Up until around a month ago, former President Donald Trump was taking credit for the withdrawal of American troops in Afghanistan after 20 years of war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives and nearly a trillion dollars.
As he did with brutal leaders like North Korea's Kim Jong Un and Russia's Vladimir Putin, the Trump administration extended unprecedented goodwill toward the Taliban, the radical fundamentalist group that harbored al-Qaeda after the September 11 Attacks. The Trump administration freed thousands of Taliban prisoners and even invited its leaders to Camp David for talks during the week of September 11.
Now, as the Biden administration faces widespread criticism for the disastrous withdrawal of troops and the unforeseen speed of the Taliban's retaking of Afghanistan, Trump continues to praise the organization.
Trump made the comments in an interview with far-right Fox News host Sean Hannity.
Watch below.
Trump claims that the Taliban, which formed in 1994, has been "fighting for a thousand years" pic.twitter.com/Es8T7bf29b
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 18, 2021
Falsely claiming the Taliban had been fighting for a thousand years, the former President said:
"But I had a very, very strong talk with the Taliban, which I considered to be much more important in this sense, because they were the problem. And they have been there for a long time. And they're good fighters and they fight hard. And after I said that, we had a pretty good conversation."
Trump was once again praising America's enemies.
The mind just reels and reels...https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1427806170060836868\u00a0\u2026— Joy-Ann (Pro-Democracy) Reid \ud83d\ude37 (@Joy-Ann (Pro-Democracy) Reid \ud83d\ude37) 1629253907
Trump: "And the Taliban, good fighters, I will tell you, they're good fighters. We have to give them credit for that. They have been fighting for 1,000 years. That's what they do."\n\nSo if we had given them "credit" the last 20 years, we wouldn't be in this mess. Unbelievable.https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1427806170060836868\u00a0\u2026— Ollie Bebe \ud83c\udf0a\ud83c\udf0a\ud83c\udf0a (@Ollie Bebe \ud83c\udf0a\ud83c\udf0a\ud83c\udf0a) 1629299612
\u201cThey\u2019re good fighters, the Taliban. You have to give them credit for that,\u201d says TFG. This is your guy, @GOP?https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1427806170060836868\u00a0\u2026— Maureen Beck (@Maureen Beck) 1629285077
"Good fighters " Lmfao is Trump even an American?https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1427806170060836868\u00a0\u2026— Ms _Gupta \ud83c\uddff\ud83c\udde6 (@Ms _Gupta \ud83c\uddff\ud83c\udde6) 1629260589
"Good fighters that have been fighting for thousands of years". I cant believe he is "praising" the Taliban after all these years of war, all these lives lost, so many American families lost a family member or a recovering for trauma and consequences of the war. https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1427806170060836868\u00a0\u2026pic.twitter.com/zW6N5w3DCq— Alma (@Alma) 1629288379
#Trump can never stop himself from Lavishing praise On Bad Guys.He\u2019s always had a Sick fascination& Admiration, for #authoritarian Leaders. \n\nAnd now, \nin this case, \n\nHe\u2019s taking the side of the #Taliban Thugs \n\nhe once hoped to hug \n\non U.S. soil at Camp David.\n#Afghanistanhttps://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1427806170060836868\u00a0\u2026— CRD (@CRD) 1629287997
For many, the interview demonstrated Trump's ignorance on the foreign policy dynamics he once oversaw.
Education is not one of Trump's strong suits.https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1427806170060836868\u00a0\u2026— Mark Stern (@Mark Stern) 1629286259
The people who don't know history are the same ones now trying to dictate what history classes look like.https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1427806170060836868\u00a0\u2026— Hemant Mehta (@Hemant Mehta) 1629251146
I see his brain is still a shower loofah soaked in barbasolhttps://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1427806170060836868\u00a0\u2026— Barrett Tomek (@Barrett Tomek) 1629250909
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