Donald Trump slams Afghan withdrawal ‘incompetence’ on September 11 anniversary

‘Joe Biden and his inept administration surrendered in defeat,’ Trump said. ‘We will struggle to recover from the embarrassment this incompetence has caused’

In a video message, Trump said ‘this is a very sad day,’ adding that September 11 ‘represents great sorrow for our country’

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Former US President Donald Trump visits the 17th Precinct of the New York City Police Department on Saturday. Photo: Reuters.

Published: 3:45am, 12 Sep 2021Updated: 2:18pm, 12 Sep 2021

Former US president Donald Trump used the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks to slam the “inept administration” of Joe Biden for its “incompetence” over the Afghan withdrawal in a video message on Saturday.

“This is a very sad day,” Trump said in the message, adding that September 11 “represents great sorrow for our country.”

“It is also a sad time for the way our war on those that did such harm to our country ended last week,” he continued.

Trump was referring to the end of the US war in Afghanistan, launched in the wake of al-Qaeda’s attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC.

Al-Qaeda had been sheltering in Taliban-held Afghanistan, and the US invasion toppled the Islamist regime in a bid to find the group’s leaders.

But the Taliban soon launched an insurgency and, after two decades of war in which Afghan civilians paid an outsized price, stormed back to power last month as the US withdrew all its troops.