Not surprisingly, he was immediately and harshly criticized by top Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill, notably for inviting the Taliban leadership to come inside the United States to Camp David on the anniversary week of the 9/11 attacks (details here and here).
And the great irony to all this is that Trump himself harshly criticized President Obama back in 2012 for merely opening informal negotiations with the Taliban (details here). Note that Obama did not invite them to enter the US to visit Camp David on the anniversary of 9/11.
Trump's thinking here is pretty transparent. One of his campaign promises during the 2016 race was ending the Afghan War. The clock is ticking and he's up for re-election.
But the Afghan War grinds on. He wanted a chance to say "winning!" so he was willing to do anything he could to get a deal with the Taliban, even if it was bad for the US and Afghanistan and good for the Taliban. So he invited them to the US to make nice nice. He was ready to bend over and agree to anything like he did with North Korea.
But then it blew up in his face when the Taliban attacked and killed a US service member in Afghanistan just a few days ago.
Max Boot wrote an excellent piece at the Washington Post yesterday (link here) about how Trump is all talk and no results when it comes to complex realpolitik negotiations. He writes:
"Trump likes making deals. He’s just not very good at it. In fact, he may be the worst dealmaker ever to occupy the Oval Office. The abrupt disintegration of his accord with the Taliban provides the latest evidence that he’s too impetuous and ignorant to be a successful negotiator."
Hard words but true to describe a feckless fool who has no business being President.
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