Former President Donald Trump once again criticized the Biden administration for failing to clean up the military mess left behind in Afghanistan following the conclusion of the U.S. troops withdrawal on August 31. The 75-year-old former Commander-in-Chief is convinced that the Taliban-seized U.S. weapons will find their way to China, Russia, and other American adversaries to be reverse-engineered.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, former President Trump expressed his disapproval over the Biden administration’s military withdrawal, calling it “the greatest embarrassment in the history of our country.” Not the Bee agrees, writing that “Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal is one of the worst presidential mistakes of our lifetimes.”
The former Republican leader said that it appeared as if America “surrendered” and “ran” despite having “F-35 fighter jets – the greatest in the world,” while the Taliban “had knives.” The U.S. forces had destroyed or disabled about 100 combat vehicles and dozens of aircraft before withdrawing from Kabul in August, but the Taliban took over a range of military equipment such as U.S.-supplied assault weapons, night-vision goggles, and other U.S. military technology, including functional Humvees, MRAPs, and UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters.
“They didn’t disable any equipment,” former President Trump accused the Biden administration. “The equipment is perfect – and if it is not absolutely perfect, it will be fixed, very, very quickly, probably by China or Russia.”
The 45th POTUS added that the U.S. military capabilities are “the best in the world,” making it highly coveted by the Taliban militant group. He said, “The goggles are the best in the world, they now have thousands of goggles. They are going to do night fighting, which they would have never done before.”
Trump also took the opportunity to boast about his administration’s accomplishments in “[rebuilding] the military with brand new, beautiful equipment.” He then accused the Biden administration of “[giving] a lot of it to the Taliban.”
“And the Taliban doesn’t need all of it, so they are sending a lot of the most sophisticated stuff to China and Iran and they’re sending it to Russia – to re-engineer,” the former Republican president said. According to the New York Post, Trump was also concerned over American Apache helicopters, which he believed are already in the hands of U.S.’ enemies.
“I guarantee that China and Russia already have our Apache helicopters and they’re taking them apart to find out exactly how they’re made,” Trump declared during a conversation with “Full Measure” on Sunday. “They’re the best in the world by far. And they’re taking them apart so they can make the exact same equipment.”
Trump, who lamented the loss of “$85 billion worth of brand new, beautiful equipment,” is not wrong in his reasoning, as his deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, former U.S. Army Col. Heino Klinck said that the possibility of U.S. adversaries getting their hands on American military tools and reverse-engineering it is “highly probable.”
