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Trump says he 'took out' bigger threats than bin Laden.
By Isaac Serna-Diez — Written on Aug 27, 2021
With the 20-year-anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack around the corner and talks of Taliban and the new ISIS-K threat, former president Donald J. Trump has some thoughts about terrorism.
In typical Trump fashion, his latest comments have been an attempt to exagerrate his success as a president and, in doing so, diminish the work of his predessors and successors.
How did he choose to do that, you might ask? By attempting to downplay the acts of one of the world's most infamous terrorists — Osama bin Laden.
Donald Trump suggested Osama bin Laden wasn't that bad.
In his latest interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday, Trump had a bizarre take on bin Laden and terrorist threats in the US.
Trump's comments, undermining the terror bin Laden inflicted globally, was an attempt to make his approach to terrorism seem superior to President Obama.
“Osama bin Laden had one hit, and it was a bad one, in New York City, the World Trade Center,” he said of the 9/11 attacks that claimed almost 2,300 lives.
“But these other two guys were monsters. They were monsters. And I kept saying for years, why aren’t they getting them? For years, I said it.”
The "other two guys" were founder of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani who Trump says he "took out."
bin Laden, during his time as leader of the Islamic militant group Al-Qaeda, was behind 9/11, but has also committed many more crimes against humanity.
Including but not limited to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings that killed more than 200 people and the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 U.S. Navy sailors.
Trump criticized Biden's approach to the Afghanistan conflict.
Beginning the critique of the standing president, Trump said that Biden “doesn’t know what’s going on” with the situation in Afghanistan right now.
“We would not have stood for any soldiers or any Americans being killed, or shot at, or being hurt,” he said in reference to the 13 American soldiers who were killed in bombings at the Kabul airport.
He boasted about his dealings with the Taliban to allow the U.S. military to pull out of Afghanistan without any interference — which they so far have not been proven to do — and claimed that they feared Trump, that “they were watching” what the military did to ISIS.
“We took out the founder of ISIS, [Abu Bakr] al-Baghdadi, and then of course [Iranian military leader Qassem] Soleimani,” he said. “Now just so you understand, Soleimani is bigger by many, many times than Osama bin Laden. The founder of ISIS is bigger by many, many times — al-Baghdadi — than Osama bin Laden.”
Trump's handling of ISIS has been challenged.
With the rise in tensions in Afghanistan and the looming threat of newly founded ISIS-K who were the perpetrators behind the bombings, Trump’s presidency and actions during his presidency are being called into question.
Former President Trump has on many occasions claimed to have “defeated ISIS, 100% of the Caliphate,” despite this new resurgence of ISIS attacks, and proceeded to make the claim again on Thursday.
“We took out ISIS in a very short period of time, wiped them out, 100%,” he said.
Trump's comments on bin Laden were likely a criticism of Obama.
Mehdi Hasan, talk show host on MSNBC, surmises that Trump doesn’t actually believe these things, but is actually jealous of Obama and the press coverage behind the mission to kill Osama bin Laden.
“Remember, Trump doesn't actually believe or think any of this stuff,” he tweeted, “It's just that Obama killed Bin Laden. And he, Trump, killed Baghdadi. Ergo Bin Laden doesn't matter. Only Baghdadi does.”
Trivializing the man who committed the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil in order to criticize other presidents is a new low for former President Donald Trump, but is not surprising in the least.
Let’s just hope he doesn’t say anything on the 20th anniversary coming up in two weeks.
Isaac Serna-Diez is a writer who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice and politics.