Former President Donald Trump described on Thursday how he would have handled the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan - but made no mention of saving Afghan allies.
'First you bring out all of the American citizens. Then you bring out ALL equipment. Then you bomb the bases into smithereens,' Trump said. 'AND THEN YOU BRING OUT THE MILITARY. You don’t do it in reverse order like Biden and our woke Generals did.'
Trump claimed if he was in charge there would be, 'No chaos, no death - they wouldn't even know we left!'
President Joe Biden is under fire for his administration being caught flat-footed as the Afghan government collapsed with the Taliban taking control - all before U.S. citizens and Afghan allies were evacuated from the Afghanistan.
Biden has said in order to show confidence in the Afghan government, the U.S. delayed a large-scale evacuation of westerners and Afghans who supported the war effort.
Former President Donald Trump described on Thursday how he would have handled the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan
'First you bring out all of the American citizens. Then you bring out ALL equipment. Then you bomb the bases into smithereens,' Trump said. 'AND THEN YOU BRING OUT THE MILITARY. You don’t do it in reverse order like Biden and our woke Generals did'
U.S. bases in Afghanistan were left abandoned in advance of the August 31 pull-out deadline.
Meanwhile, Taliban fighters have been photographed with American military equipment in their hands.
Trump, whose adminstration struck a deal with the Taliban to have U.S. forces out by May - a deadline Biden extended - has been playing Monday morning quarterback as the chaos has unfolded.
In line with what he said Wednesday, the latest statement makes no mention of bringing Afghans out of the deteriorating country.
On Wednesday, Trump did an about-face of Afghan refugees and complained about the site of 640 Afghans packed onto a U.S. Air Force C-17 arguing the plane should have been filled with Americans fleeing Afghanistan instead
'This plane should have been full of Americans. America First!' Trump said in a statement, sharing a tweet from CBS News that featured the photograph, that has gone viral since the Sunday flight.
Trump previously hammered President Joe Biden for not rescuing civilians who had aided the American war effort.
A photo from July shows Bagram Air Base, which was handed over to Afghan National Defense and Security Forces, which fell to the Taliban earlier this week
Trump sent out a statement Wednesday afternoon that said, 'This plane should have been full of Americans. America First!' He then shared a tweet that showed the viral image of 640 Afghan refugees packed into a C-17
Trump shared the viral photo of 640 Afghans crammed into a Air Force C-17 fleeing Taliban rule
On Monday, Trump hammered President Joe Biden for having the military leave Afghanistan for 'evacuating civilians and others who have been good to our Country and who should be allowed to seek refuge'
'Can anyone even imagine taking out our Military before evacuating civilians and others who have been good to our Country and who should be allowed to seek refuge?' Trump said in a statement Monday.
'In addition, these people left topflight and highly sophisticated equipment. Who can believe such incompetence? Under my Administration, all civilians and equipment would have been removed,' the former president added.
Trump's change of tune came as some of his allies started fear-mongering about Afghan refugees flooding into the U.S.
Steve Cortes, a senior adviser to Trump's 2020 campaign, reacted to the Afghan refugee photo Tuesday by tweeting, 'Raise your hand if you want this plane landing in your town?'
'America paid unimaginable costs in Afghanistan because of uniparty globalists who dominated the Bush & Obama administrations. No more…,' he said.
The Center for Renewing America, which is led by former Trump Office of Management and Budget official Russ Vought, sent out a statement Tuesday cautioning that the U.S. shouldn't bring in too many Afghan refugees.
Steve Cortes, a senior adviser to Trump's 2020 campaign, shared the Afghan refugee photo Tuesday and tweeted, 'Raise your hand if you want this plane landing in your town?'
The statement was co-authored by Ken Cuccinelli, who served as the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security under Trump.
It was shared on Twitter by top Trump aide Stephen Miller.
'[W]e must keep in mind that most of the fleeing Afghans will not have directly aided the United States or directly fought against the Taliban. And it is not in our national interest to accept refugees merely because they are refugees,' the statement said.
'Already U.S. governors are rushing to resettle refugees from Afghanistan with no thought as to how it will impact the security or cohesion of their communities,' the statement continued.
'Americans understandably want to protect Afghans who risked their lives to fight w U.S. against the Taliban & Al-Qaeda,' it said. 'However, we must be careful that we do not allow the attitude behind the self-destructive open border policies & enforcement failures happening on our southern border to be repeated with the importation & resettlement of tens of thousands of Afghans who we cannot properly vet and who may very well pose a security risk to our communities, and may be unable or unwilling to assimilate into our country.'
During his four years in office, Trump was an immigration hard-liner who vastly diminished the U.S.'s refugee program.
He also put in place a so-called 'Muslim ban,' which aimed to suspend travel and immigration from a handful of Muslim-majority countries.
He first announced his plans for a ban in December 2015, weeks before the beginning of the Republican primary.
Trump pushed to have the U.S. leave Afghanistan and signed a deal with the Taliban to remove all U.S. troops by May of this year.
Biden extended the deployment, with the aim to remove U.S. boots on the ground by August 31, less than two weeks before the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, which prompted U.S. involvment in Afghanistan.
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