President Donald Trump hopes to retrieve billions of dollars worth of equipment left in Afghanistan after his withdrawal from the country in 2021.
“We've left billions of dollars, billions of dollars worth of equipment, brand new trucks,” Trump said at his first cabinet meeting on Wednesday. “We see them showcase it every year, or they drive their little roads, where they have roads, and they drive around waving flags and talking about America… That's all about the line. I think we should get a lot of that equipment back.”
According to a 2022 Department of Defense report, the Taliban seized most of the remaining $7 billion in equipment in Afghanistan during its withdrawal in August 2021.
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US President Donald Trump will make his speech at a cabinet meeting at the White House held in Washington, DC on February 26, 2025. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The US military removed or destroyed many of the main equipment used during the drawdown, but military equipment, including aircraft, ground vehicles and other weapons, was left in Afghanistan. The status of these items remains unknown, but the Pentagon said in its report that it is likely to fail to operate without maintenance from US contractors.
Details about how the US will retrieve remaining equipment in Afghanistan were not available immediately, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
President Joe Biden will withdraw US troops from Afghanistan in 2021 and end the war in the region based on plans from the first Trump administration with Taliban leaders in 2020.
Outside Hamid Karzai International Airport, 13 US service members were killed during the withdrawal process due to a suicide bombing at Abbey Gate, and the Taliban quickly seized control of Kabul.
Trump's comments on Wednesday answered questions about whether he was considering firing the military leader who oversaw the withdrawal. Trump told the Secretary of Defense that he would not instruct the Pentagon about actions that should drive those leaders away, but he said he would “dismiss them all.”
Still, some key leaders involved in the withdrawal are no longer serving in the military. Marine Commander Kenneth F. Mackenzie Jr., the US Central Commander at the time of withdrawal, retired and gained full ownership in 2024 due to the loss of the US military.
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Gen. Kenneth Mackenzie, former commander of the US Central Commander, said he was responsible for service members lost during Afghanistan's withdrawal. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc, Getty Images)
“I am the overall commander and I and myself are the only ones who have full military responsibility for what happened at Abbey Gate,” Mackenzie told the House Foreign Affairs Committee in March 2024.
Additionally, the retired Army general of retired co-director General Mark Milley told lawmakers at the same hearing that evacuation should occur sooner, and that multiple factors contributed to the failure of the withdrawal. Mackenzie and Millie told lawmakers they advised Biden to keep the US troops in Afghanistan after pulling most of the US troops.
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“The outcomes in Afghanistan were the result of many decisions from the war over the years,” Millie told lawmakers. “Like complex phenomena, there was no single causal factor determining the outcome.”
The US Central Command oversees military operations in the Middle East.
