Always a Tweet: What Did Trump Have to Say When Obama Tried Negotiating With the Taliban?
Theres a recurring joke online about how almost every time Donald Trump says or does something that puts him in a political quandary, there always seems to be a tweet from the president’s past where he took the opposite position on the same issue.
Now that Trump is cancelling his meetings with Taliban and Afghan officials at Camp David, political observers have noticed that times have certainly changed.
Trump announced the cancellation of the secret meetings on Twitter Saturday evening, which comes amid news of uncertain peace talks and the Taliban taking credit for a recent suicide bombing that killed an American soldier.
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
….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
Trump’s proposed meetings have drawn media interest for a variety of reasons, not the least reason being that this meeting was going to happen just days from the 18th anniversary of 9/11. As it were, Trump had some thoughts a few years ago when Barack Obama made his own diplomatic attempts with the Taliban, and here’s what the president had to say about his predecessor back then:
While @BarackObama is slashing the military, he is also negotiating with our sworn enemy the Taliban–who facilitated 9/11.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 13, 2012
This happens to be an “always a tweet” situation where there isn’t just one tweet, but lots of them. Here’s a few of Trump’s other related posts for you to peruse:
Joe Biden said that the Taliban 'is not our enemy.' I wonder how our troops in Afghanistant that are under attack view Biden's statement.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 20, 2011
Pathetic–@BarackObama is 'sweetening' his offer to the Taliban http://t.co/nqyeOLry Read 'The Art of The Deal.'
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 8, 2012
The U.S. cannot negotiate with terrorists. It is a sad and terrible situation for the family involved, but this can only lead to disaster.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 1, 2014
The same "brilliant" negotiators that gave up five Taliban leaders for one traitor are now making trade deals with China & others.No chance
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 8, 2014
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo went on a Sunday morning media blitz to talk about Trump’s aborted meetings, during which, he said peace talks with Taliban and Afghan leaders are “absolutely” off for now. Pompeo was also interrogated on how he would’ve felt about this if it happened during Obama’s time.
[Photo by Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images]
