Rich Lowry (Fox News)
Although President Joe Biden made it clear from the outset that it was his decision to leave Afghanistan, the manner in which he did so was constrained to some extent by how former President Donald Trump cut a deal with the Taliban to withdraw from the country last year.
Despite this, some Republican commentators are still insisting that none of the current challenges in evacuating Afghanistan would have been an issue if Trump were still president, and one of the biggest purveyors of this idea is National Review editor Rich Lowry.
Like it or not, there's little doubt that if President Trump had gotten himself into this situation in Afghanistan, he would have instantly established leverage with the Taliban by making threats to hit them hard and relentlessly that they wouldn't have been able to ignore— Rich Lowry (@Rich Lowry) 1629840808
Lowry's comment was roundly mocked and dismantled by commenters on social media — with writer Matthew Yglesias taking particular issue with it and noting all the times Trump failed to "establish leverage" with hostile foreign actors.
This take, notably, manages to be stupider than Trump's own assertions.https://twitter.com/RichLowry/status/1430282131222183938\u00a0\u2026— Dan Friedman (@Dan Friedman) 1629844513
This Trump fan fic is off the chain.— Sarah Longwell (@Sarah Longwell) 1629842403
Guys, the party that brought you 9/11 and the wars in #Afghanistan and Iraq, and its reality-TV host that oversaw a impotent #COVID response being currently replicated in many red states, would have TOTALLY KILLED this withdrawal.\n\nShameless and stupid.https://twitter.com/RichLowry/status/1430282131222183938\u00a0\u2026— Joe Rossi (@Joe Rossi) 1629844946
This tweet is a combination of owning the libs and virtue signaling to Trumpers who still won't forgive @RichLowry for the special anti-Trump issue of @NRO before @RichLowry and @NRO jumped on the Trump train.https://twitter.com/RichLowry/status/1430282131222183938?s=19\u00a0\u2026— American Rebel (@American Rebel) 1629844808
\u201cHelp me or the dinner at Camp David on 9/11 if off; this I can tell you. And no love letters. And, by the way, many people are saying I write the best love letters. A big Mullah, huge guy, was crying when he read my letter. He said, \u2018Sir, this is very big and very beautiful.\u2019\u201dhttps://twitter.com/richlowry/status/1430282131222183938\u00a0\u2026— Tom Nichols\u2019 dog (@Tom Nichols\u2019 dog) 1629844671
He would be rage tweeting and blowing hot air. Most likely end up killing everyone at the airport because fox news said it was a good idea to start a fight before the deadline. Jfc.https://twitter.com/RichLowry/status/1430282131222183938\u00a0\u2026— London-NY (@London-NY) 1629844259
Best day of Rich Lowry\u2019s professional life was when Twitter nuked Trump\u2019s feed, making it slightly inconvenient to bombard him with all the evidence in Trump\u2019s own words of how full of shit Rich Lowry is.https://twitter.com/richlowry/status/1430282131222183938\u00a0\u2026— Brian Beutler (@Brian Beutler) 1629844141
How can anybody possibly square this with the reality that Trump was going to host the Taliban at Camp David on 9/11 until people caught wind of it and still cut a deal on withdrawal with them anyways?https://twitter.com/richlowry/status/1430282131222183938\u00a0\u2026— Heath Mayo (@Heath Mayo) 1629843962
Right. And then he\u2019d uncut the threats the moment the Taliban flattered his toddler ego.https://twitter.com/richlowry/status/1430282131222183938\u00a0\u2026— Damon Linker (@Damon Linker) 1629843902
Trump also would have forced Xi to make trade concessions, scared Turkey out of threatening the Kurds in Syria, and made Putin leave Ukraine alone.— Matthew Yglesias (@Matthew Yglesias) 1629843375
Back in the early days of the pandemic, Xi was being squirrely and not telling the world everything he knew about the novel coronavirus but Trump fired off a few of his signature threats and changed things.pic.twitter.com/FsCQj2esfz— Matthew Yglesias (@Matthew Yglesias) 1629843761
