President Donald Trump said on Monday that peace talks between the United States and the Taliban over the war in Afghanistan are “dead,” after he canceled “secret” plans over the weekend for a Camp David summit, as Fox News and other outlets reported.
“They’re dead. They’re dead. As far as I’m concerned, they’re dead,” Trump said on Monday afternoon.
The president made these comments to media members as he departed the White House grounds. He held a “Keep America Great” rally on Monday night in Fayetteville, North Carolina, ahead of a special election in that state on Tuesday.
Over the weekend, the president said he had intended to hold a “secret meeting” at Camp David on Sunday with Taliban representatives — but that he called it off due to the Taliban’s role in a fatal bombing in Kabul last week. That bombing resulted in the death of a U.S. soldier.
“They thought they had to kill people in order to put them in a little better negotiating position,” Trump told reporters on Monday, as news outlets recounted. He added, “You can’t do that. You can’t do that with me.” – READ MORE