Donald Trump tweeted Saturday night that he had abruptly canceled a clandestine meeting at Camp David with the president of Afghanistan and Taliban leaders.
The president also ‘called off peace negotiations’ that had appeared to be close to a final agreement.
From the Washington Post:
President Trump said Saturday that he had canceled a previously undisclosed summit at Camp David with Taliban leadership and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani after the Taliban took responsibility for an attack last week that killed a U.S. soldier.
Trump said the meetings had been set to take place Sunday.
On Twitter, the president appeared to cancel talks with the Taliban indefinitely, a significant blow to the peace process kicked off last year, which was nearing its conclusion.
In tweets Saturday evening, Trump wrote that he has “called off peace negotiations” and accused the Taliban of perpetrating the attacks to strengthen their negotiating hand.
“What kind of people would kill so many in order to seemingly strengthen their bargaining position?” Trump tweeted. “They didn’t, they only made it worse!”
The canceled meetings were scheduled to be held just days before the 18th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which led to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.
The Taliban. On U.S. soil. Three days before the 9/11 anniversary.
Seriously.
Unbeknownst to almost everyone, the major Taliban leaders and, separately, the President of Afghanistan, were going to secretly meet with me at Camp David on Sunday. They were coming to the United States tonight. Unfortunately, in order to build false leverage, they admitted to..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 7, 2019
….an attack in Kabul that killed one of our great great soldiers, and 11 other people. I immediately cancelled the meeting and called off peace negotiations. What kind of people would kill so many in order to seemingly strengthen their bargaining position? They didn’t, they….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 7, 2019
….only made it worse! If they cannot agree to a ceasefire during these very important peace talks, and would even kill 12 innocent people, then they probably don’t have the power to negotiate a meaningful agreement anyway. How many more decades are they willing to fight?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 7, 2019
Chris Wallace asks Secretary of State Mike Pompeo why President Trump planned to meet with Taliban leaders three days before 9/11. #FNS #FoxNews pic.twitter.com/BKXdElTqUy
— FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) September 8, 2019
2008. Sarah Pallin: “Barack Obama is palling around with terrorists.”
2019. Donald Trump invites Taliban to hang out at Camp David on anniversary of 9/11.
— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) September 8, 2019
Can we just take a second to acknowledge the absurdity of the fact that in between robbing the American military to get funding for his meaningless wall, and the 9/11 anniversary, the president tweeted about a secret meeting with the Taliban and followed up with a cat video?
— Ida Skibenes ❄️ (@ida_skibenes) September 8, 2019
How about we end the war without inviting the Taliban to dinner on the week of 9/11? https://t.co/5SC1mAmYlg
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) September 8, 2019
And just to show you that the Donald is totes on his game, he followed those tweets with this:
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 8, 2019
(image via Flickr/White House – public domain)
