Trump Stuns With Foreign Policy Comments at Cabinet Meeting: Historians are ‘Weeping’
President Donald Trump stunned many this afternoon with foreign policy comments during his lengthy Cabinet meeting, specifically concerning the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
“Russia used to be the Soviet Union. Afghanistan made it Russia because they went bankrupt fighting in Afghanistan. Russia,” Trump said. “So you take a look at other countries––Pakistan is there. They should be fighting. But Russia should be fighting. The reason Russia was in Afghanistan was because terrorists were going into Russia. They were right to be there. The problem is it was a tough fight.”
Trump: "Russia used to be the Soviet Union. Afghanistan made it Russia because they went bankrupt fighting in Afghanistan. Russia."
Trump then goes on to endorse the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Via Fox. pic.twitter.com/oE0fuDLXyz
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 2, 2019
The President was immediately blasted for those baffling remarks:
The incomprehensible ignorance displayed in that 63 seconds on the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the collapse of the Soviet Union is really breathtaking.
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) January 2, 2019
That sound you hear is historians, everywhere, weeping… https://t.co/Zbo41WI9pG
— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) January 2, 2019
“They were right to be there.” Trump endorses the Russian invasion of Afghanistan?! Everyone who says he knows what he is doing on foreign policy just stop. https://t.co/A7ZLt21znY
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) January 2, 2019
There’s a lot of “Wow, Republicans sure aren’t the party of Reagan anymore” lamentations these days but it’s kinda hard to top endorsing the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) January 2, 2019
It seems impossible, but it's true: President Trump just endorsed the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Who's he working for? https://t.co/vRMfr3hQ8W
— David Frum (@davidfrum) January 2, 2019
Even in this most competitive field, this is one of the stupidest things Trump has ever said, and only doesn't qualify as one of the most evil because he doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about. https://t.co/r9WPQ1zXlf
— Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) January 2, 2019
Trump said Russia was "right" to invade Afghanistan in 1979, since Russia invaded "because terrorists were going into Russia." Shockingly, that is not at all what happened. https://t.co/9jk6OMEVDH
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) January 2, 2019
Privately, they admitted to themselves that no such thing was happening, and that they were mostly concerned that AFG was going to "pull a Sadat" and flip from Team Commie to Team America. Trump was basically just babbling. /2x
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) January 2, 2019
Additionally, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes called the President’s comments on Syria “utterly incoherent”:
This entire thing is just utterly incoherent. A series of synapses firing with little nuggets of both real and invented knowledge with absolutely no framework or structure. https://t.co/yj9kzFozpr
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) January 2, 2019
[photo via Getty Images]
