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Afghanistan trap
Confidence 4/5
★★★★☆Fuckup rating 4/5
Serious fuckup
The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was still governed by the Trump-era deal that set a near-term deadline for leaving. By May 28, 2021, that inherited timeline was increasingly looking like a self-inflicted strategic mess for the United States and a political gift to the Taliban, who could point to the looming pullout as evidence the Americans were on the way out. Biden had choices to make, but the underlying screwup was Trump’s decision to hand the next president a brittle, high-risk exit plan with minimal leverage left on the table.
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Story
Photo-op backlash
Confidence 3/5
★★★☆☆Fuckup rating 3/5
Major mess
By May 28, 2021, the Lafayette Square fallout was still generating legal and political blowback, with civil claims over the protest crackdown and the photo-op still dogging Trump’s legacy. The underlying screwup was not just the force used that day; it was the instinct to treat a federal law-enforcement operation as a campaign-stunt backdrop. The result was another legal fight that kept the episode alive and undercut Trump’s attempt to pretend the whole thing was just a media narrative.
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