Former President Donald Trump said that at one point when he was in the White House, he threatened one of the top members of the Taliban by sending him a satellite picture of his house and saying he would “obliterate” him.
The conversation between Trump and Abdul Ghani Baradar, who is now the deputy prime minister of Afghanistan, happened as the former president sought to withdraw all U.S. troops from the country — a goal he was adamant about accomplishing that was later completed in August 2021 under President Joe Biden. However, Trump threatened that if the Taliban launched an attack as U.S. troops were exiting the country, “we’re going to hit you harder than any country has ever been hit,” he said.
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“He said, ‘I understand, your Excellency,’” Trump recalled, according to an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity released on Thursday. “I’m the one who got it down to very few soldiers. I wanted to get out.”
Going further, Trump said he threatened to “obliterate” the Taliban leader if he did not listen.
“Didn’t you at one point tell him, ‘I know exactly where you are,’ and give him the exact coordinates where he was?” Hannity asked.
“No,” Trump said. “I sent him a picture of his house. He said, ‘But why, but why do you send me a picture of my house?’ I said, ‘You have to figure that one out.’”
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The revelations came during an interview released on Thursday in which the former president touched on a number of subjects, including the southern border crisis and the war in Ukraine. Trump also hinted at a third presidential bid, telling Hannity he could revert the country’s policies to what they were under his administration “very quickly.”
However, the former president said he could not “legally” confirm whether he would launch another reelection bid in 2024. Although Trump has not announced he would vie for the White House, he has hinted at the prospect several times.
