Trump expected to link Harris to chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan war in speech to National Guard

In a speech Monday to National Guard soldiers in Michigan, former President Donald Trump is expected to promote his foreign policy record and tie Vice President Kamala Harris to one of the Biden administration’s lowest points: the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war.

The speech coincides with the third anniversary of the August 26, 2021, suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport that killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 100 Afghans. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, is scheduled to appear at 2 p.m. ET at the 146th General Conference and Exposition of the National Guard Association of the United States in Detroit.

Since Biden ended his reelection campaign, Trump has focused his attention on Harris, now the Democratic presidential nominee, and her role in foreign policy decisions. He has singled out the vice president’s claim that she was the last person in the room before Biden made the decision on Afghanistan.

“She bragged about being the last person in the room, and she was. She was the last person in the room with Biden when they decided to pull the troops out of Afghanistan,” he said last week at a rally in North Carolina. “She had the final vote. She had the final say, and she was all for it.”

Relatives of some of the 13 US service members killed took to the stage at the Republican National Convention last month, saying Biden had never publicly named their loved ones. The protest was an implicit response to allegations that Trump does not respect veterans and has previously called soldiers killed in World War II “suckers and losers” — accusations Trump denies.

Under Trump, the United States signed a peace deal with the Taliban that aimed to end the longest war in U.S. history and bring American troops home. Biden later used the deal to try to deflect blame for the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, saying it forced him to withdraw his troops and set the stage for the chaos that has engulfed the country.

A Biden administration review of the withdrawal acknowledged that the evacuation of Americans and allies from Afghanistan should have begun sooner, but blamed the delays on the Afghan government and military, as well as assessments by the U.S. military and intelligence community.

The top two U.S. generals who oversaw the evacuation have said the administration did not adequately plan for the withdrawal. The top U.S. military officer at the time, Gen. Mark Milley, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers earlier this year that he had urged Biden to keep a residual force of 2,500 troops to provide support. Instead, Biden decided to keep a much smaller force of 650 troops that would be limited to securing the U.S. embassy.