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On Sunday afternoon, Americans learned that a drone packed with explosives struck a base in northeast Jordan, near the Syria border. The attack killed three U.S. troops — Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett — and left more than 30 with injuries.
Also on Sunday afternoon, Donald Trump used his social media platform to express his sympathies for the fatalities — while blaming President Joe Biden for the actions of terrorists. From his trio of missives:
“This brazen attack on the United States is yet another horrific and tragic consequence of Joe Biden’s weakness and surrender. ... This attack would NEVER have happened if I was President, not even a chance.”
The former president added that his approach would mean “no more chaos, no more destruction, and no more loss of precious American lives.”
Part of the problem is with the Republican’s character and instincts. It’s as if Trump learned the news over the weekend and effectively thought to himself, “Three American troops were killed. How can I exploit this to advance my own interests and brag about how great I think I am?”
Basic human decency usually prevents honorable people from politicizing deadly terrorist attacks. It’s a simple lesson the presumptive GOP nominee prefers not to learn.
But in terms of factual details, Trump asserted that such an attack “never” would’ve happened if he were in office, but reality tells a very different story. As a New York Times report explained, “In fact, Iran and its proxies did attack American and allied interests during Mr. Trump’s presidency.”
In March 2020, for example, two American service members and a British soldier were killed in a rocket attack on a military base in Iraq, and the U.S. believed Iran-backed militia groups were most likely behind the assault. A few months earlier, a barrage of rockets killed an American contractor and wounded four American service members in Kirkuk, Iraq.
NBC News reported in September 2020, in the months that followed, militia groups — believed to be backed by Iran — continued to target U.S. military bases, and the frequency of those attacks increased throughout Trump’s final year in the White House.
What’s more, let’s also not forget that in January 2020, an Iranian missile strike left several dozen of U.S. troops with traumatic brain injuries. Trump dismissed the importance of the injuries — the Republican called them little more than "headaches" — prompting Veterans of Foreign Wars to ask the then-president to apologize for minimizing what had happened to the troops.
Trump ignored the VFW’s appeal.
My point is not to blame Trump for the attacks that occurred on his watch. Rather, my point is that when Trump tries to blame his own country’s leaders for foreign terrorism, and says such violence would “never” happen if he were in office, we know this is ugly and unnecessary nonsense, intended to persuade people who don’t remember what happened just four years ago.