During a Saturday night rally in Alabama, former President Donald Trump criticized the decision to withdraw the U.S. from Afghanistan, saying it is "the greatest foreign policy humiliation in the history of the United States of America."
The rally was to support Rep. Mo Brooks, who is running for a Senate seat in Alabama. This is not the first time that 45 has held a rally for a Republican running for office. At the end of June, he held his first rally since the Jan. 6 insurrection, where he supported candidate Max Miller in Ohio, under the same slogan, "Save America."
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During the rally, the former president ripped President Biden, saying he has allowed "weakness in the White House." He went on to talk about Afghanistan, saying that "Vietnam looks like a masterclass in strategy compared to Joe Biden's catastrophe."
"This will go down as one of the great military defeats of all time, and it did not have to happen that way," Trump said at the rally. "This was not a withdrawal; this was a total surrender, for no reason.
"He surrendered our airbase, he surrendered our weapons, he surrendered our embassy," Trump said.
Trump was mentioning the report from the National Security Agency, which stated that the Taliban is now using U.S. equipment left behind during the evacuation of the country.
The report says that billions of dollars worth of equipment was left behind, including 600,000 assault rifles, 2,000 armored vehicles, and 40 aircraft, including Black Hawk helicopters.
"It didn't have to happen. All [Biden] had to do was leave the soldiers until everyone was out, our citizens, the weapons, and then you bomb the hell out of the bases and say 'bye bye,'" Trump said.
Trump called attention to his administration's decision to leave Afghanistan following 20 years and $2 trillion in war efforts. He said that he wanted to leave "in dignity" and that under Biden, the country did not.
"Very soon we're going to have September 11, and we're going to have — because of Biden — the Taliban flag flying over the embassy."
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While in office, Trump had negotiated with Taliban leadership, who he described as "great negotiators" and "tough fighters." He defended these comments during the rally, saying that he orchestrated a "conditions-based agreement" for the U.S. to pull out.
He said that he had made an agreement with Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar that Americans and the U.S. government would be protected when the withdrawal happened.
"With me in office, the Taliban would not have ever dreamt of capturing our airfield or parading around with our American weapons," he said.
To top off the celebration of success, Trump reminded the crowd of his victories in the Middle East, including airstrikes against Syrian despot Bashar al-Assad, who had used chemical weapons on his own people, and the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi during a U.S. military raid.
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Also, at the rally, Brooks said that 2020 voter fraud should be left in the past, and instead, voters should focus on the 2022 and 2024 elections. The crowd then erupted, chanting, "fix it now."
Trump closed out his speech, saying that he will "Make America Great Again," and the classic song "Sweet Home Alabama" played as he walked off.