RASC News Agency: Former U.S. President Donald Trump strongly criticized the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan under Joe Biden, calling it “shameful” and accusing the Biden administration of effectively handing the country over to the Taliban.
Trump made the remarks on Friday, Feb 13, during a speech at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
He said the chaotic exit enabled the Taliban to seize control and establish a totalitarian structure that systematically and violently suppresses civil liberties, women’s rights, independent media, and non-Pashtun communities.
Referring to U.S. military hardware left behind, Trump said:
“Do you remember how they left all that military equipment? We would never do that. We don’t leave anything. We wanted to leave with dignity, strength, and respect. Instead, it looked like we were running. We don’t run from anyone. This was Biden’s disgrace.”
He argued that the abandoned weapons strengthened the Taliban’s repressive machinery and intensified their violent control over the Afghanistani population.
Trump also questioned why U.S. military aircraft were not evacuated:
“We don’t leave equipment. We don’t leave jets. I asked, why did you leave those planes? They said it was cheaper. A $150 million aircraft! All they needed was fuel to fly it anywhere.”
According to observers, much of this equipment is now in Taliban hands and is being used to enforce fear, crush dissent, and consolidate authoritarian rule.
Trump claimed that during his first term, the U.S. military had been “rebuilt” into the world’s most powerful force:
“With your help, America has the strongest military on earth. We rebuilt it in my first term.”
He implied that Biden’s withdrawal reversed that legacy and allowed the Taliban to re-emerge as a brutal military and political power.
Trump made the remarks during a visit in which he praised U.S. special forces involved in the operation to detain Venezuela’s former president Nicolas Maduro, calling the mission “extraordinary.”
He contrasted this with what he described as “handing Afghanistan to the Taliban,” a group he said has systematically barred women from education, shut down media outlets, and dismantled civil society.
The United States withdrew from Afghanistan in Afghanistan in August 2021 after nearly 20 years of war. The exit followed the February 2020 agreement signed during Trump’s first term with the Taliban, which set the withdrawal timeline.
Critics argue that the Taliban never honored their commitments and, immediately after the withdrawal, imposed a full-scale authoritarian system. During the rapid takeover, a suicide bombing at Kabul International Airport killed 13 U.S. service members and around 170 Afghanistani civilians.
President Biden has said he was bound by the Trump-era agreement and faced a choice between completing the withdrawal or re-entering the war. Trump, however, rejected this claim, stating that the deal was conditional and that he would never have allowed an exit if the Taliban violated their obligations violations that human rights organizations say have since become official policy through systematic repression.
Fox News Digital reported that it contacted Biden’s office for comment but received no response by the time of publication.
