Trump Calls Leaving US Equipment in Afghanistan “Stupid” Mistake
DID Press: US President, in a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, described the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan and the abandonment of military equipment as the “biggest mistake” of the previous administration and pledged to rebuild the U.S. army.
Donald Trump, during his meeting with Mohammed bin Salman at the White House, once again labeled the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan as a “strategic and costly blunder” of the former government, calling the abandonment of American military equipment in the country a “completely stupid decision.”
Referring to his first administration spending billions of dollars on rebuilding the U.S. military, Trump said, “We spent years modernizing the army, yet part of the equipment ended up abandoned in Afghanistan because incompetent people were in charge. What was left behind was small in volume, but the core problem was the inefficiency of the decision-makers.”
U.S. President announced that he has a broad plan to strengthen the country’s military and intends to bring the armed forces to “the strongest level in U.S. history.”
After the U.S. troop withdrawal in 2021, the Taliban took control of much of the former Afghan army’s equipment along with some U.S. weaponry. Over the past years, the group conducted several military parades at Bagram Air Base using this equipment. However, in the fourth year of their rule, reports indicate that the Taliban have refrained from publicly displaying American-made arms.
In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly emphasized the importance of retrieving the left-behind equipment, estimating its value at over $12 billion. He has even conditioned any potential future financial assistance to Afghanistan on the “full return of this equipment.”
In contrast, the Taliban have strongly rejected these statements, asserting that the equipment “belongs to the Taliban” and that they have no plans to return it to the United States—even if the dispute escalates to armed conflict.