2024 Candidate Trump Record On Afghanistan
Starting in 2019, Trump began undermining our operations in Afghanistan.
That began with an invitation to the Taliban to a private meeting at Camp David on the anniversary of 9/11. That meeting was changed after outrage from both sides of the aisle. Nevertheless, Trump insisted on meeting with Taliban leaders outside the presence of the legitimate Afghan government, and negotiated with the Taliban rather than Afghan leaders about the future of the country after the American withdrawal.
Trump promised and secured the release of 5,000 Taliban terrorists being held prisoner in Afghanistan including more than 150 that had been sentenced to death, 44 who were known to be involved in high profile attacks against US forces, and the mastermind of the deadliest attack of the entire occupation
Then he committed to a withdrawal date about 100 days after he knew he’d be out of office.
A few days after he was determined to have lost his re-election bid, he announced that before leaving office he would reduce our troop presence to its lowest of the entire occupation. This drew so much criticism from all sides that Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act, which in part barred the removal of any troops from Afghanistan prior to Inauguration Day. Trump vetoed this bill, and his veto was easily overridden even as his own party controlled the Senate at the time. Then five days before leaving office, he illegally withdrew the troops anyway in knowing violation of the law.