Don Jr accused of ‘gloating’ over Afghanistan turmoil

‘Imagine gloating while thousands of people are going to be killed’, says critic as ex-president’s eldest son tweets in frenzy about fall of Kabul

Donald Trump Jr has been accused of celebrating images of chaos in Afghanistan, after militants on Sunday took control of the country’s capital, Kabul.

The eldest son of former US president Donald Trump, who agreed to fully withdraw American forces from Afghanistan last year, issued a series of tweets attacking President Joe Biden for what has widely been seen as a failure in US foreign policy.

"Not surprising," Mr Trump Jr said of the Taliban's unexpected return to Kabul. "Biden's woke 'intelligence' gurus are the same ones who were WRONG on Russian collusion & Russian bounties, WRONG about China & Iran being 'competitors,' WRONG on Covid origins, WRONG on Hunter's laptop, & WRONG on basically everything else."

The tweet, which featured many right-wing conspiracy theories, was ridiculed for failing to acknowledge that his father’s White House had agreed with the Taliban to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan.

In April, Mr Trump also took credit for the withdrawal and called on Mr Biden to bring American troops home before the 20th anniversary of 9/11 – the terror attacks that sent US forces to Afghanistan in 2001 with the aim of defeating the Taliban.

“You’re dad is the one who negotiated this peace deal,” a Twitter critic wrote of Mr Trump Jr.

“The GOP cares more about the Afghan government being overthrown, than they do about Trump trying to do the same thing on 6 January,” another wrote of the chaos, which was compared to the assault on the US Capitol by followers of Mr Trump.

Others accused Mr Trump Jr of “gloating” about the fall of the Afghan government, which commentators warned could result in the deaths of those with connections to US and NATO forces. Women are also at risk from laws and restrictions.

Whilst the American public widely support the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, Republican lawmakers were among those to criticise Mr Trump for reaching an agreement with the Taliban – which he had labelled as “wonderful”.

On Sunday night, the former president accused Mr Biden of not “following the plan” and of allowing the Taliban to retake the Afghan capital, Kabul, within weeks of US forces leaving the country – after US intelligence agencies reportedly believed it was a matter of months.

“He ran out of Afghanistan instead of following the plan our Administration left for him—a plan that protected our people and our property, and ensured the Taliban would never dream of taking our Embassy,” Mr Trump wrote.

His son, Mr Trump Jr, meanwhile issued a series of tweets attacking the Biden administration, which included a retweeted image of the Taliban at the Afghan presidential palace with the words: “This is what a real insurrection looks like”.

He also attacked the US embassy in Kabul – from where officials were airlifted to safety on Sunday – for tweeting in support of LGBT+ rights in June because they “should have focused on other things”.

“But who knows, I’m sure the media will tell us they’re doing great,” said Mr Trump Jr.