There are too many to count examples of Trump’s numerical dyslexia, some silly and some deadly, but one involving the 2020-2021 end of the US War in Afghanistan is relevant again after his recent Foreign Policy effort in Asheboro, NC this week.
Almost 2,500 American lost their lives in the Afghanistan War in the twenty years from 2001-2021. We will focus on the last five years of US combat, since those are the ones when Trump and Biden were in charge. Here is an official Department of Defense accounting by month and year of US deaths from 2017 through 2021. (1) (2)
Simple inspection shows that under Trump in Afghanistan 65 Americans were killed; under Biden the number was 13. Five times as many died under Trump’s leadership than when Biden was in charge.
Trump was in charge for 48 months; in 15 of them (31%) there were no fatalities. Biden was in charge for 8 months; in 7 of them (87%) there were no fatalities. Biden’s record is almost three times better (less lethal for American troops) than Trump’s command performance.
Of course, the history of the American saga in Afghanistan is complicated. But this chart demonstrates that 30-second sound bites and political sloganeering can have deadly consequences.
Trump in 2024 endlessly repeats his political attack themes from 2020 and earlier. To demonstrate his military genius, he compares his performance ad nauseum during the Afghanistan War to that of President Joe Biden.
Yet it is Trump who got more Americans killed in Afghanistan with his actions, and then left Biden with a horrible mess he inherited from Trump who was whining about mythical lost votes in Georgia, instead of doing his job as Commander in Chief.
Recently, Trump has added two spicy elements to those tired attacks.
Now he wants to fire every senior military officer involved with the 2021 Afghanistan Withdrawal on Day One if he is elected. He offered this as a Campaign Pledge at an Asheboro, NC rally on Wednesday with JD Vance at his side.
From the New York Post story (August 21, 2024): (3)
“I will ask for the resignations of every single senior military official who touched the Afghanistan disaster,” he announced. “I want their resignations immediately.”
Trump said he expected to see resignation letters on his “desk in the Oval Office” on Inauguration Day.
On July 18, 2024 during his Republican National Convention speech, Trump floated the fanciful notion that he wanted to keep Bagram Air Force Base in the middle of Afghanistan while removing all US troops in the country.
From Reason article (July 19, 2024):(4)
“They also gave up Bagram [Airfield], one of the biggest bases anywhere in the world, the longest runways, most powerful, hardened, thickened runways. We gave it up,” he said on Thursday night. “I liked it not because of Afghanistan. I liked it because of China. It’s one hour away from where China makes their nuclear weapons.”
Ignoring for the moment the logistical impossibility of such ignorant foolish boasts, it is a vintage example of a Second-Hand Donnie rehash combination of grievance and deflection.
More important, it whitewashes his own egregious failure in February 2020 when he got suckered by the Taliban into a stupid “peace deal” agreement with a publicly announced time certain to withdraw all US troops (May 1, 2021). On his watch he ordered the US Air Force to stand down attacks on the Taliban in country; he made the deal without consulting the actual Government of Afghanistan (our ally); invited the Taliban to meet at Camp David for September 11, 2019; and in November 2020 ordered the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to withdraw all US military forces in Afghanistan by January 15, 2021 in contravention of his own agreement, before cancelling the order one week later.
For example, from Wikipedia: (5)
“In the aftermath of the US–Taliban deal, the US stopped supporting the Afghan military in its offensive operations, forcing it to take mostly defensive positions around the country. According to the agreement, US military aircraft could not attack Taliban groups waiting more than 500 meters away, giving the Taliban an edge in targeting Afghan military units. The agreement also exacerbated the morale of the Afghan army and police, making them more open to accepting bargains with the Taliban. Due to a lack of information and secret annexes in the agreement, that had not been shared even with the then Afghan government, the Taliban were able to spread propaganda and disinformation about the agreement, including convincing local police and military units that the US had handed over territories to the Taliban and that they should abandon their positions.[102]
In the 45 days after the agreement (between 1 March and 15 April 2020), the Taliban conducted more than 4,500 attacks in Afghanistan, an increase of more than 70% compared to the same period in the previous year.[103] More than 900 Afghan security forces were killed in the period, up from about 520 in the same period a year earlier. Meanwhile, because of a significant reduction in the number of offensives and airstrikes by Afghan and US forces against the Taliban, Taliban casualties dropped to 610 in the period down from about 1,660 in the same period a year earlier.”
In other words, in the first 45 days after Trump’s peace deal, our most effective and safest for our troops military assets, lethal Air Force strikes on the Taliban were taken out of action, while our ally Afghan troop deaths doubled, and the enemy Taliban casualties fell by two-thirds. Hell of a peace deal, Donnie!! Major screwup on your command watch.
And from the White House Review Report of the Afghanistan Withdrawal (April 6, 2023): (6)
Eighteen months later, after introducing more than 3,000 additional troops just to maintain the stalemate, President Trump ordered direct talks with the Taliban without consulting with our allies and partners or allowing the Afghan government at the negotiating table. In September 2019, President Trump emboldened the Taliban by publicly considering inviting them to Camp David on the anniversary of 9/11. In February 2020, the United States and the Taliban reached a deal, known as the Doha Agreement, under which the United States agreed to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by May 2021. In return, the Taliban agreed to participate in a peace process and refrain from attacking U.S. troops and threatening Afghanistan’s major cities—but only as long as the United States remained committed to withdraw by the agreement’s deadline. As part of the deal, President Trump also pressured the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban fighters from prison, including senior war commanders, without securing the release of the only American hostage known to be held by the Taliban.
So, Trump unilaterally negotiated with the enemy Taliban while not consulting with either our military allies or the legitimate government of Afghanistan, invited an active combatant US terrorist enemy to Camp David during the anniversary of the 9/11 Terrorist Attack on our country, and agreed to release 5,000 enemy combatants without getting one American Hostage released.
That ‘peace’ deal not only sucks as a business deal, it was cowardly and unpatriotic. How many of those Trump released prisoners and enemy commanders do you think were involved in killing Americans in 2021 as we left the country?
These are example of the deadly chaos resulting from his impulsive pull it out of your ass military and foreign policy decision making that characterized the time Trump was in charge.
We have not described here that Trump has recently opined that he might make NASCAR drivers his new Generals if he is re-elected, since they “win so many races.” (7) Remember that Trump has said more than once he is smarter than all the Generals, despite his lifetime lack of one minute of any military service. He thinks he can end the Ukrainian war in one day by talking to Putin. He calls our American War dead “losers and suckers.” He has insulted Gold Star Families, US Prisoners of. War, and most recently, our Medal of Honor winners.
The latest spicy element he adds to this toxic mix of arrogance, ignorance, lack of patriotism, and self-indulgent puffery is the report from CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) that Trump has just sued the Taliban (current government of Afghanistan) for $200,000 for unpaid common charges and expenses for a unit in Trump World Tower in Manhattan.
CREW- Afghanistan owes Trump building $200,000 (August 16, 2024): (8)
The government of Afghanistan owes Donald Trump’s Trump World Tower more than $200,000, according to a property lien filed last week with the New York City Department of Finance. The debt relates to unpaid charges for a unit in the building across the street from the United Nations, which is popular with foreign governments.
According to the lien, Afghanistan has not paid for common charges and other fees in the building since March 2022, resulting in a debt of $219,914.75. A similar document filed last year shows they missed additional payments at the end of 2021. They do not appear to have missed payments while Trump served as president, but started to miss payments after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan.
Unbelievable.
Trump blew the chance to end the war when he had the chance. He got suckered into a lousy deal by the Taliban for God’s sake. He screwed up the end of the war by leaving office without a detailed plan of exit for the troops in 2021. He made private money off the sovereign government of Afghanistan while in office, in violation of the Emoluments Clause of our US Constitution. And now he wants to sue them for billionaire chump change ($200k) in New York for non-payment of condo fees and storage rent, since he is out of office.
That’s chutzpah. That’s more than reason enough to keep him in a permanent state of retirement, far away from sharp objects, and most certainly, from anywhere near the Office of President of the United States.
References
(1) United States military casualties in the War in Afghanistan (Wikipedia, August 25, 2024)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_in_the_War_in_Afghanistan
(2) Number of fatalities among Western coalition soldiers involved in the execution of Operation Enduring Freedom from 2001 to 2021 (Statista.com, August 9, 2024)
https://www.statista.com/statistics/262894/western-coalition-soldiers-killed-in-afghanistan/
(4) https://reason.com/2024/07/19/trump-wishes-americans-stayed-in-afghanistan-to-fight-china/
(5) 2020–2021 U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan (Wikipedia, August 25, 2025)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020–2021_U.S._troop_withdrawal_from_Afghanistan
In February 2020, the Trump administration and the Taliban signed the United States–Taliban deal in Doha, Qatar,[7] which stipulated fighting restrictions for both the US and the Taliban, and in return for the Taliban’s counter-terrorism commitments, provided for the withdrawal of all NATO forces from Afghanistan by 1 May 2021. Following the deal, the US dramatically reduced the number of air attacks on the Taliban at the detriment of the ANSF fighting the Taliban insurgency.[8] The Biden administration‘s final decision in April 2021 was to begin the withdrawal on 1 May 2021, but the final pull-out of all US troops was delayed until September 2021, triggering the start of the collapse of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF).[9]This collapse led to the Taliban takeover of Kabul on 15 August 2021.
In the aftermath of the US–Taliban deal, the US stopped supporting the Afghan military in its offensive operations, forcing it to take mostly defensive positions around the country. According to the agreement, US military aircraft could not attack Taliban groups waiting more than 500 meters away, giving the Taliban an edge in targeting Afghan military units. The agreement also exacerbated the morale of the Afghan army and police, making them more open to accepting bargains with the Taliban. Due to a lack of information and secret annexes in the agreement, that had not been shared even with the then Afghan government, the Taliban were able to spread propaganda and disinformation about the agreement, including convincing local police and military units that the US had handed over territories to the Taliban and that they should abandon their positions.[102]
In the 45 days after the agreement (between 1 March and 15 April 2020), the Taliban conducted more than 4,500 attacks in Afghanistan, an increase of more than 70% compared to the same period in the previous year.[103] More than 900 Afghan security forces were killed in the period, up from about 520 in the same period a year earlier. Meanwhile, because of a significant reduction in the number of offensives and airstrikes by Afghan and US forces against the Taliban, Taliban casualties dropped to 610 in the period down from about 1,660 in the same period a year earlier. The Pentagon spokesman, Jonathan Hoffman, said that although the Taliban stopped conducting attacks against the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, the violence was still “unacceptably high” and “not conducive to a diplomatic solution.” He added: “We have continued to do defensive attacks to help defend our partners in the area and we will continue to do that.”[103]
(6) U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan (WhiteHouse.gov, April 6, 2023)
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/US-Withdrawal-from-Afghanistan.pdf
President Biden’s choices for how to execute a withdrawal from Afghanistan were severely constrained by conditions created by his predecessor. When President Trump took office in 2017, there were more than 10,000 troops in Afghanistan. Eighteen months later, after introducing more than 3,000 additional troops just to maintain the stalemate, President Trump ordered direct talks with the Taliban without consulting with our allies and partners or allowing the Afghan government at the negotiating table. In September 2019, President Trump embolded the Taliban by publicly considering inviting them to Camp David on the anniversary of 9/11. In February 2020, the United States and the Taliban reached a deal, known as the Doha Agreement, under which the United States agreed to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by May 2021. In return, the Taliban agreed to participate in a peace process and refrain from attacking U.S. troops and threatening Afghanistan’s major cities—but only as long as the United States remained committed to withdraw by the agreement’s deadline. As part of the deal, President Trump also pressured the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban fighters from prison, including senior war commanders, without securing the release of the only American hostage known to be held by the Taliban.
Over his last 11 months in office, President Trump ordered a series of drawdowns of U.S. troops. By June 2020, President Trump reduced U.S. troops in Afghanistan to 8,600. In September 2020, he directed a further draw down to 4,500. A month later, President Trump tweeted, to the surprise of military advisors, that the remaining U.S. troops in Afghanistan should be “home by Christmas!” On September 28, 2021, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Milley testified that, on November 11, he had received an unclassified signed order directing the U.S. military to withdraw all forces from Afghanistan no later than January 15, 2021. One week later, that order was rescinded and replaced with one to draw down to 2,500 troops by the same date. During the transition from the Trump Administration to the Biden Administration, the outgoing Administration provided no plans for how to conduct the final withdrawal or to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies. Indeed, there were no such plans in place when President Biden came into office, even with the agreed upon full withdrawal just over three months away.
(8) CREW- Afghanistan owes Trump building $200,000 (August 16, 2024)
The government of Afghanistan owes Donald Trump’s Trump World Tower more than $200,000, according to a property lien filed last week with the New York City Department of Finance. The debt relates to unpaid charges for a unit in the building across the street from the United Nations, which is popular with foreign governments.
According to the lien, Afghanistan has not paid for common charges and other fees in the building since March 2022, resulting in a debt of $219,914.75. A similar document filed last year shows they missed additional payments at the end of 2021. They do not appear to have missed payments while Trump served as president, but started to miss payments after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan purchased the unit in Trump World Tower for $4.2 million in 2009. Five foreign governments own units in the building that are operated as diplomatic facilities. The Trump Corporation, part of Trump’s eponymous business empire, manages the building and collects fees in the form of monthly “common charges” for doing so. Afghanistan’s debt includes “common charges, storage-room fees, electricity charges, attorneys’ fees, late charges, assessments and interest,” according to the lien document. While some items on that list may not be owed to Trump’s company, common charges are probably the cost driver. During 2018, Afghanistan paid nearly $40,000 in these fees.