Pence Says Trump Would Have Kept US Troops in Afghanistan, Rejects Blame for Chaotic Withdrawal

President Donald Trump, (R), and Vice President Mike Pence wait on the rooftop of the Operational Building at NASA before the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on May 30, 2020. Saul Martinez/Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump would have kept at least a couple thousand U.S. troops in Afghanistan despite his 2020 peace agreement with the Taliban, according to former Vice President Mike Pence.

In February 2020, the Trump Administration reached a deal (pdf) with the Taliban to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan within 14 months, so long as the Taliban kept its commitment not to attack the United States or its allies.

In an interview with CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, host Margaret Brennan noted a new assessment (pdf) by the U.S. State Department under President Joe Biden’s administration, which assigned blame to both Biden and Trump for the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Citing the State Department report, Brennan asked Pence to assess whether the Trump administration should accept some of the blame. Pence suggested the Trump administration would have kept troops in the country and altered course if they were still in charge during the final months of the Afghanistan withdrawal.

“The blame for what happened here falls squarely on the current commander-in-chief, and under our administration I promise you that while it was the intention of the president, the former president, to pull our troops out, when the Taliban broke the deal and moved into Mazar-i-Sharif and Joe Biden did nothing, that set into motion the catastrophe that became Afghanistan,” Pence replied.

“Are you saying there that you would have kept the troops beyond the 2020 deal? Is that what you’re saying?” Brennan asked.

“Look, candidly, it was always my belief that it would be prudent to keep a couple of thousand American forces there to support our efforts against terrorist elements, both in Afghanistan and in the region, and I think we ultimately would have done that,” Pence said.

The United States had less than 10,000 troops in Afghanistan at the time the Trump administration struck the peace deal with the Taliban. By Trump’s final days in office, official U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan fell to about 2,500. Under Trump’s original timeline, the total U.S. troop withdrawal could have concluded by May 2021, but in April, Biden pushed the final withdrawal date back to Sept. 11, 2021.

Pence suggested that if the Trump administration had remained in office, the U.S. mission in Afghanistan might have played out similarly to Trump’s 2019 effort to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria. As Trump attempted to wind down the U.S. military mission in Syria, fighting broke out between U.S.-allied Kurds and Turkey, which is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance. Pence helped broker a ceasefire between the Turkish and Kurdish forces and retained some U.S. troops in the country rather than completing a full withdrawal.

“Just as the former president announced we were pulling troops out of Syria, you remember, I was sent to Turkey to negotiate a ceasefire and ultimately there’s still American forces in Syria today. I think we would have landed in that place,” Pence said Sunday. “I will tell you with deep conviction that that disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan would never have happened under our administration because we would have held the Taliban to the deal.”

Trump and Pence Show Differing Attitudes on War

Trump has rejected blame for the outcome of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. In April, a Biden administration report largely blamed the 2020 U.S.-Taliban peace deal for constraining Biden. Trump responded to that April assessment by calling Biden administration officials “morons” and faulted them for taking out many U.S. military forces first before reversing course and redeploying troops to assist with civilian evacuation efforts.

The 45th president has not said whether he would have kept U.S. troops in Afghanistan, but has criticized “endless wars” throughout his 2024 presidential campaign. In February, Trump said he would mass fire “warmongers” within “the Deep State, the Pentagon, the state department, and the National Security industrial complex” if he is reelected.

The Russia-Ukraine war has been another point of focus for Trump, who has said he wants it seen to that people on both sides of the conflict “stop dying” and has said he could negotiate a peace agreement between the two sides “within 24 hours.”

Pence, who is challenging Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has exhibited a different attitude toward war than his former running mate. During his interview with “Face the Nation,” Pence said, “It’s absolutely essential that the United States continues to provide military support to the Ukrainian military.”

Pence also faulted Biden for being too slow in providing U.S. military support for Ukraine.

“[The Biden administration] promised 33 Abrams tanks back in January, now they’re telling them it‘ll be September at the earliest,” Pence said. “We’re still dragging our feet on giving them [F-16 fighter jets] and they were actually told that it’d be January before the U.S. would approve those aircraft being released.”

“Biden says, ‘We’re there as long as it takes,’” he added. “It shouldn’t take that long.”

From NTD News