ASHEBORO, NC — Former President Donald Trump pledged to demand mass resignations of top military officials behind the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal and give “back pay” to service members fired for refusing COVID-19 vaccines should he return to the White House in January.
The Republican presidential nominee’s focused on his national security policies in his Asheboro, NC, stint – his second visit to the state in a week. He gave his remarks from behind bulletproof glass, which the Department of Defense and Secret Service ordered for all his outdoor events after he was nearly assassinated on July 13 in Butler, Pa.
Trump, 78, touched on issues related to Afghanistan, the war in Ukraine, Iran, “woke-ism” in the military and recruitment crisis facing the US armed services.
Afghanistan
The former president laid blame on both President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for the botched US exit from Afghanistan, arguing that it has been “open season on America and our allies” since the “Afghanistan disaster.”
“It was the most humiliating event in the history of our country,” Trump said of the nation’s “catastrophic retreat” from the now Taliban-run country.
Biden, 81, has not fired anyone related to the Afghanistan withdrawal, but Trump vowed to hold the government and military officials responsible for it accountable.
“I will ask for the resignations of every single senior military official who touched the Afghanistan disaster,” he announced. “I want their resignations immediately.”
Trump said he expected to see resignation letters on his “desk in the Oval Office” on Inauguration Day.
He also criticized the Biden-Harris administration’s decision to leave behind equipment in Kabul.
“Afghanistan is now one of the largest arms merchants in the entire world,” he added, highlighting the eye-popping tally of equipment – “70,000 armored trucks” and “700,000 rifles and guns” – abandoned during the August 2021 withdrawal.
“All left by the Biden-Harris administration. Who bought all that stuff in the first place?” Trump said.
“This calamity is on comrade Kamala Harris’ shoulders,” he argued. “She was the last person in the room with Biden when the two of them decided to pull out of Afghanistan.”
Event attendee Craig Garner, a 55-year-old lineman, told The Post that he thinks Trump would handle the military better than the Biden-Harris administration did.
“[The military is] very poorly equipped. I don’t think we are prepared at all,” he said. “Trump is going to do a better job with it. He says he is pro military, and our son is a marine, so we are a military family also.”
Ukraine
Trump predicted that under a Harris administration, Russia’s war against Ukraine would continue raging on.
“This war is going to escalate and escalate,” he said.
The GOP nominee also suggested he could negotiate peace in the region even before assuming office, if elected.
“I’ll get it settled as president-elect. I’ll get that war stopped. It will be done before I get into office,” Trump pledged.
He touted former President Ronald Reagan’s “peace through strength” doctrine, arguing that he’d be able to prevent future Russian incursions into the Ukraine, or other parts of Europe, and other world conflicts through tough diplomacy.
“If you go to war with another country that’s friendly to us – or even not friendly to us – you’re not going to do business in the United States, and we’re going to charge you a 100% tariff,” he said of what he would tell world leaders seeking conflict.
“I’ve talked this world out of a lot of wars with telephone calls,” he boasted. “We don’t have to send in the troops.”
Woke Military
Trump lamented that the nation’s armed forces have become too “woke” – pledging to end focus on gender identity and race in the military upon taking office.
“At the top, they are woke,” he said of the military. “We don’t want woke generals; we want generals who know how to win.”
“On Day One, I will get critical race theory and transgender insanity the hell out of our US armed forces,” Trump promised. “We’re taking it out.”
“Our warriors should be focused on defeating America’s enemies, not figuring out their genders.”
Trump added, “Marxist ideologies have no place in combat.”
“If you want to have a sex change or social justice seminar then you can do it somewhere else, but you’re not going to do it in the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, Space Force or the United States Marines.”
The proposal played well with attendees including retired parametic Marlina Straughn, 64, whose husband served in the Army.
“The military is not the same. They are losing people mainly because they’re just – I don’t know how to say it – just don’t have the will that they used to have. They’ve lost it. It’s just become so woke,” she said.
Recruiting and Rebuilding the Military
Trump promised to rehire service members fired for refusing COVID vaccines under Biden with “an apology and back pay.”
In the Army alone, 1,903 soldiers were discharged for opting against getting the shots.
Last year, the military welcomed those troops back once the vaccine mandate was rescinded, but did not offer them back pay or an apology.
Trump also pledged to hold the “largest peacetime recruitment drive in the history of the armed forces.”
Under Biden, the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard have fallen short of their recruitment goals.
“There‘s no spirit [in the military] now,” Trump argued. “The sense of spirit, pride and prestige will soon come roaring back and reach levels never seen before.”
“We’re going to make it so hot – I’m going to want to resign and join the military.”
Enhanced Security Measures for Trump
The former president’s podium was placed behind a large pane of ballistics glass and three more plates of the bulletproof material shielded Trump’s back and sides as spoke to his supporters.
The Security Service reportedly encouraged the Trump campaign to no longer hold outdoor rallies in the wake of the Butler shooting, and the bulletproof glass is part of the additional measures being deployed by the embattled agency to protect the GOP nominee.
At one point, Trump ventured outside the perimeter of the glass – mid-speech – to embrace a woman who required medical attention, seemingly overcome by the North Carolina heat.
