Trump’s Afghanistan Deal Keeps Looking Like a Booby Trap
The pullout from Afghanistan was still dominating the political conversation on August 31, 2021, and the story line was increasingly ugly for Donald Trump. His February 2020 deal with the Taliban had set the withdrawal process in motion and constrained the options available to the next administration, while the chaotic final exit now looked less like an isolated Biden failure than the predictable end of a Trump bargain built on wishful thinking and deadline theater. The result was a historic mess that kept boomeranging back onto Trump, who had spent months bragging about ending endless wars while leaving behind a structure that was far from stable. The more the fallout was examined, the more the deal looked like a diplomatic own goal dressed up as toughness.