President Trump argued on Wednesday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should “fire every single” US military general involved in the Biden administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The Pentagon chief was seated to Trump’s left during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, when a reporter asked about the current employment status of the generals tasked with organizing the August 2021 US exit from Afghanistan.
“I’m not going to tell this man what to do but I will say that if I had his place, I’d fire every single one of them, Pete,” Trump responded.
Hegseth jumped in to note that under his leadership, the Department of Defense is conducting “a complete review of every single aspect of what happened with the botched withdrawal of Afghanistan and plan to have full accountability.”
“We’re taking a very different view, obviously, than the previous administration,” the defense secretary continued, noting Trump’s nomination of retired Air Force Lt. Gen. John Dan “Razin” Caine to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “And there will be full accountability.”
Trump said he expects the Pentagon review to result in the removal of most of the generals involved in the chaotic withdrawal — which resulted in American citizens and US partners being left behind, the abandonment of billions of dollars in military equipment and the deaths of 13 US service members.
“I don’t see a big promotion in that group,” Trump said of the military generals involved in the withdrawal. “I think I think they’re going to be largely gone.”
“That was a horrible display.”
The president also called on the Taliban, which quickly regained control of Afghanistan amid the US exit, to return American military equipment that was left behind.
“I think they should give our equipment back. And I told Pete to study that,” Trump said.
“We left billions, tens of billions of dollars worth of equipment behind. Brand new trucks. You see them display it every year, on their little roadways,” he added.
The president claimed the Taliban-run country has now become “one of the biggest sellers of military equipment in the world,” profiting off the sale of the weapons, armor and machinery the Biden administration left behind.
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