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Trump releases statement on loss of US service members: 'Should never have been allowed to happen'
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Trump releases statement on loss of US service members: 'Should never have been allowed to happen'

Twelve U.S. service members and at least 60 Afghans were killed in the terrorist attacks near the Kabul airport on Thursday. Former President Donald Trump declared that the loss of service members "should never have been allowed to happen."

Trump released a statement on the suicide attacks near Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan that also wounded 15 U.S. service members and 143 Afghans.

"Melania and I send our deepest condolences to the families of our brilliant and brave Service Members whose duty to the U.S.A. meant so much to them," Trump said. "Our thoughts are also with the families of the innocent civilians who died today in the savage Kabul attack.

"This tragedy should never have been allowed to happen, which makes our grief even deeper and more difficult to understand," the former president added. "May God Bless the U.S.A."

Earlier Thursday morning, shortly before the terror attacks in Afghanistan, Trump appeared on "The Hugh Hewitt Show."

Trump said the Biden administration made "some horrible, stupid decisions" in the past week and a half during the U.S. withdrawal, the worst being "allowing our military to leave before the civilians and before we get all of our equipment back, $83 billion dollars.

"And not, nobody can even comprehend that much equipment. Thousands of vehicles," he continued.

"I think it's the most embarrassing moment for our military and for our country," Trump said of Biden's withdrawal. "And for some reason, it doesn't make sense, he pulled the military out first."

Trump outlined how he would have withdrawn from Afghanistan.

"I would have gotten all Americans out," Trump said would have been his first step in withdrawal. "I would have gotten all of the people that helped us out that were in danger, if they were good people. Some were not good people."

Trump said he would not have taken U.S. troops out of Bagram Air Base before the withdrawal was completed. President Joe Biden had U.S. forces vacate Bagram Air Base on July 2.

Trump noted that the second step would have been to take all military equipment.

"I want every single nail, screw, and bolt," he said of U.S. equipment in Afghanistan. "I then would have, with the exception of Bagram, which I would have kept, I would have bombed all of the bases, because I don't want to give those bases to Russia, China, or even the Taliban. I would have bombed every base."

Trump alleged that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley advised him that "it's cheaper to leave the equipment than to take it out." He responded that Milley's remark is "one of the dumbest statements I've ever heard."

In the interview that was done before the deadly terror attacks, Trump said the agreement he had with Taliban leader Abdul Qahar Balkhi is why there were no American soldiers killed in Afghanistan for 18 months.

"And I had a very, very tough conversation with him about what we're going to do to them if anything happens," Trump said of his relationship with the Taliban leader. "But you really have to add to your three points, also add the fact that nobody was to be killed, harmed in any way, and nobody was. It was an amazing thing. We had a very strong agreement. It was conditions-based."

Trump said he threatened Balkhi, "If you do anything bad to the United States of America, if you do anything bad to any of our civilians, to any American citizen, I will hit you harder than anybody has ever been hit in world history. You will be hit harder than any country and any person has ever been hit in world history."

Trump claimed that the current conditions in Kabul are allowing "some very, very bad terrorists" to get on planes leaving the country because there is a lack of vetting.

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