Trump claims Taliban don’t negotiate and then calls them great negotiators in rambling Fox interview

Former president ignores his own role in the US’s withdrawal and alleges that ‘we’re being set up’

Donald Trump has described the Taliban as “great negotiators” in a rambling interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News in the wake of the Afghanistan government’s collapse.

The former commander-in-chief, who is also facing blame for agreeing with the Taliban to withdraw US and NATO forces from Afghanistan, apparently ignored his own role in the collapse of the country’s armed forces and government in the wake of the Taliban’s return.

Offering his own take on Joe Biden’s widely derided withdrawal, Mr Trump said the Taliban were “great negotiators” who had also “set up” the United States — and in turn, his own administration, who signed off on a withdrawal deal in February of last year.

“I never saw anything so stupid in my life, until the last few days with Afghanistan”, said Mr Trump in an interview with Mr Hannity on Tuesday night.

“What happened and what is happening in Afghanistan is unbelievable and we’re being set up by very tough people that are very great negotiators,” he told the Fox News anchor, adding; “I’ll tell you what, they’re great automatic negotiators, they’ve been fighting for a thousand years.”

While the Taliban have not been in existence for a thousand years, Mr Trump did agree to withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan by May 2020 — a deadline which Mr Biden extended to the end of August and the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that started the so-called “war on terror”.

“We’re being set up. They have all of those people and in a certain way, I guarantee you they consider them to be hostages,” said Mr Trump of the US soldiers and officials who were left in Kabul, carrying out evacuations of civilians and refugees as the Taliban advanced.

“This is not a story that ended today or yesterday, this is a story that’s going to go on for a long time, and it could be a very, very bad ending”.

Mr Biden, in an address to the nation on Monday night, defended his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan after two decades in the country, and for largely following Mr Trump’s agreement.

Many have called out both for abandoning Afghans who worked with the US, and for failing to forecast the Taliban’s swift return to power.