As Taliban blitzed through Afghanistan, here's how Donald Trump slammed Joe Biden

As US President Joe Biden has drawn massive backlash over the Taliban re-conquering Afghanistan, he has attempted to deflect some of the blame of his predecessor Donald Trump. However, since the former US President Trump is no longer on any social media platform, the search trend to know his views on the ongoing crisis in the South Asian nation has dramatically spiked. At the time of publishing this article, Trump’s latest remarks on the issue came on August 13 when the Taliban was yet to capture the Afghan capital Kabul, but Herat and Kandahar had already fallen to the insurgents. Taking to his official blog website, Trump had addressed the "tragic mess" in the war-torn country but also questioned, "do you miss me yet?"

Donald Trump said, “Tragic mess in Afghanistan, a completely open and broken Border, Crime at record levels, oil prices through the roof, inflation rising, and taken advantage of by the entire world—DO YOU MISS ME YET?”

Earlier, on August 12, when the Taliban had conquered Herat and Kandahar, Trump floated the baseless claim of “rigged” presidential elections in US in November 2020. He said that if he were the US President presently, the withdrawal of US troops would be “conditions-based.” The ex-US President said, “Had our 2020 Presidential Election not been rigged, and if I were now President, the world would find that our withdrawal from Afghanistan would be a conditions-based withdrawal. I personally had discussions with top Taliban leaders whereby they understood what they are doing now would not have been acceptable.”

“It would have been a much different and much more successful withdrawal, and the Taliban understood that better than anyone. What is going on now is not acceptable. It should have been done much better,” Trump added.

Biden pins blame on Trump as Taliban conquers Afghanistan

United States President Joe Biden appeared to deflect the criticism he received over the situation in Afghanistan, to his predecessor Donald Trump. In a statement on August 14, while cataloguing all the steps he has taken amid the Taliban offensive in Afghanistan following his decision to withdraw US troops from the South Asian country after two decades, Biden also said that he inherited the deal cut by Trump which ultimately left the extremist group “in the strongest position militarily since 2001.” 

The US President also said that Trump reduced American soldiers in the war-torn country to just 2,500 shortly before he left in January. However, Biden also pledged that the US war in Afghanistan will not be passed on to the next US President after already being presided by at least four Presidents.

IMAGE: AP