ALL EQUIPMENT should be demanded to be immediately returned to the United States, and that includes every penny of the $85 billion dollars in cost. If it is not handed back, we should either go in with unequivocal Military force and get it, or at least bomb the hell out of it. Nobody ever thought such stupidity, as this feeble-brained withdrawal, was possible!
— Donald Trump, 30 August 2021
The good news is that when swinging for wild inaccuracy, he's still batting 1.000. The cost of "all [U.S.] equipment" left behind in Afghanistan is roughly $24 billion, not $85 billion, as the Washington Post's Fact Checker notes this morning. (The vast excess was spent on training and housing Afghan security and police forces.) And much of that equipment will soon be useless to the Taliban, since they haven't the parts or technical means to maintain it.
The even better news is that some of the Trump Party's congressional candidates might feel obligated to agree with the Mar-a-Lago idiot about redeploying "unequivocal Military force" in Afghanistan, or bombing the hell out of it. The Times has an interesting piece on voters in California’s swing, 39th congressional district: "Even some Republicans who voted for Donald Trump last fall were reluctant to criticize Mr. Biden" on what has transpired in Afghanistan under his watch.
Which is to ask: Is Trump losing touch with his — and possibly his political allies' — voters?