WASHINGTON, Feb 27 : US President Donald Trump has called for the return of billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment left behind in Afghanistan after the 2021 American troop withdrawal, according to media reports.
The reports said that the president also pressed for the removal of US generals involved in what he described as a disastrous exit.
“We left billions, tens of billions of dollars worth of equipment behind, brand new trucks,” Trump said during his first Cabinet meeting Wednesday, FOX News quoted him as saying.
“You see them display it every year, or their little roadway, someplace where they have a road and they drive the, you know, waving the flag and talking about America … that’s all the top of the line stuff. I think we should get a lot of that equipment back.”
Trump added, “I think they should give our equipment back. And I told Pete to study that. But 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 said.
He said the Taliban were selling the military weapons and gear, making Afghanistan, in Trump’s words, “one of the biggest sellers of military equipment in the world.”
“They’re selling 777,000 rifles, 70,000 armour plated . . . trucks and vehicles,” he said. “I think we should get it back.”
He also asserted the U.S. should have kept control of Bagram Air Base, once the largest American military base in Afghanistan now controlled by the Taliban.
The Taliban seized most of the more than $7 billion worth of equipment U.S. troops left in Afghanistan at the time of the withdrawal in August 2021, according to a Department of Defense report released in 2022.
Pakistan has been warning that some of the advanced military equipment left behind by the departing US troops is now in the hand with Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorists, who have stepped up their cross-border attacks against Pakistan causing significant loss o f life and damage to infrastructure.
According to FOX news, although U.S. troops removed or destroyed much of the major equipment that forces used during the drawdown, military equipment including aircraft, ground vehicles and other weapons were left in Afghanistan. The condition of these items remains unknown, but the Pentagon said in the report it would likely fail operationally without maintenance from U.S. contractors.
President Joe Biden moved to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2021, building upon plans from the first Trump administration in 2020 with Taliban leaders to end the 20-year-old war in the region.
Thirteen U.S. service members were killed during the withdrawal process due to a suicide bombing at Abbey Gate, outside of Hamid Karzai International Airport, and the Taliban quickly seized control of Kabul.
Trump’s comments Wednesday came in response to questions about whether he was considering firing military leaders who oversaw the withdrawal. While the president said he wouldn’t instruct Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on what actions the Pentagon should take, Trump said he would “fire every single one of them.”
Even so, several key leaders involved in the withdrawal are no longer serving in the military. The commander of U.S. Central Command at the time of the withdrawal, Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, has since retired, and in 2024 took full ownership for the loss of U.S. troops.
Additionally, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, said at the time that he believed the evacuation should have occurred sooner and that multiple factors contributed to failures in the withdrawal. Both McKenzie and Milley had also said they advised Biden to keep some U.S. troops in Afghanistan after pulling most U.S. forces.
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