Former President Donald Trump made a series of national security policy commitments during a speech in Asheboro, North Carolina on Friday, pledging mass resignations among top military officials and compensation for service members fired over their refusal to take Covid-19 vaccines. The comments represent the former president’s first detailed remarks on US foreign policy since his visit to East Palestine last month.
Speaking from behind bulletproof glass, which has been ordered by the Department of Defense and Secret Service for all Trump’s outdoor events following a near assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania on 13th July, the Republican presidential nominee focused on issues related to Afghanistan, the war in Ukraine, Iran, “woke-ism” in the military and recruitment crisis facing the US armed services.
Blaming both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for the botched US exit from Afghanistan, Trump characterized the event as “open season on America and our allies” since the “Afghanistan disaster. He declared that it was “the most humiliating event in the history of our country”, arguing that under their leadership, it had been a “catastrophic retreat” from the now Taliban-run country.
Despite no one being fired in connection with the Afghanistan withdrawal to date, Trump vowed to hold government and military officials responsible for the botched exit accountable. I will ask for the resignations of every single senior military official who touched the Afghanistan disaster,” he announced. I want their resignations immediately.
Trump also criticized the decision by the Biden-Harris administration to leave behind equipment in Kabul, describing Afghanistan as now one of the largest arms merchants in the world, with an astonishing amount of abandoned equipment – 70,000 armoured trucks and 700,000 rifles and guns.
Speaking about the current situation in Ukraine, Trump predicted that under a Harris administration, Russia’s war against Ukraine would continue to escalate. He also pledged to rehire service members fired for refusing Covid vaccines under Biden with “an apology and back pay.
Trump’s speech, which was delivered from behind a large pane of ballistics glass with three more plates of bulletproof material shielding him as he spoke to his supporters, is expected to set the tone for his foreign policy agenda should he succeed in regaining office. The Security Service reportedly encouraged the Trump campaign to no longer hold outdoor rallies in the wake of the Butler shooting, and the bulletproof glass represents additional measures being deployed by the embattled agency to protect the former president.
The speech has been met with mixed reactions from both supporters and opponents of the former president, with some praising his commitment to rebuilding the US armed forces while others criticize what they see as inflammatory rhetoric that could exacerbate tensions on the world stage. Regardless of one’s views on Trump or his policies, it is clear that his return to the political arena will have significant implications for US foreign policy in the coming years.
