Former President Trump on Sunday argued President Biden’s “weakness and surrender” is to blame for the deadly drone attack in Jordan that killed three U.S. service members.
Trump, in a post on Truth Social, weighed in on what he called the “brazen” drone attack in Jordan on Saturday that killed three U.S. troops and wounded at least two dozen others.
“The drone attack on a U.S. Military Installation in Jordan, killing 3 American Servicemembers, and wounding many more, marks a horrible day for America. My most profound sympathies go to the Families of the Brave Servicemembers we have lost,” Trump wrote.
“I ask all Americans to join me in praying for those who have been wounded. This brazen attack on the United States is yet another horrific and tragic consequence of Joe Biden’s weakness and surrender….” he continued.
Trump’s attack on Biden came just hours after the president announced the strike, which marked the first time U.S. service members have been killed by enemy combatants in the Middle East since the onset of Israel’s war with militant Palestinian group Hamas.
Biden on Sunday said the strike was carried out by “radical Iran-backed militant groups.” The Pentagon called the strike “a One-Way ‘Suicide’ Drone Attack on a Patrol Base” near the Syrian and Iraqi border in northeastern Jordan. At least 25 soldiers were injured in the strike.
In a separate statement, released Sunday by the Trump campaign, the former president touted his handling of Iran when in the White House.
“Three years ago, Iran was weak, broke, and totally under control. Thanks to my Maximum Pressure policy, the Iranian Regime could barely scrape two dollars together to fund their terrorist proxies,” Trump wrote. “Then Joe Biden came in and gave Iran billions of dollars, which the Regime has used to spread bloodshed and carnage throughout the Middle East.”
Attacks against U.S. troops in the Middle East still occurred at times under Trump’s watch, including in 2020, when a rocket attack on an Iraqi airbase killed two Americans and a British national. The attack also wounded more than 11 people.
In a NBC News report months later, then-Gen. Frank McKenzie revealed U.S. bases in Iraq continued to be targeted after the rocket attack.
Trump has repeatedly accused Biden of being a “weak” leader and has claimed other world conflicts are connected to the world’s “weak” perception of the president and the United States.
In the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked an ongoing war in Gaza, Trump at the time said the group’s attacks were made possible because the U.S. is “perceived as being weak and ineffective with a really weak leader.”
He repeated this point on Sunday, writing on Truth Social, “This attack would NEVER have happened if I was President, not even a chance – Just like the Iranian-backed Hamas attack on Israel would never have happened, the War in Ukraine would never have happened, and we would right now have Peace throughout the World. Instead, we are on the brink of World War 3…..”
The former president later added the U.S. “cannot survive” with Biden as its commander in chief.
The Saturday strikes are likely to further fuel concerns of an escalation of the conflict in the Middle East as Iran-backed militant groups continue to wage attacks on U.S. forces in the region.
Biden last week ordered strikes on three Iraqi facilities used by Iranian-backed groups. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last week the U.S. does not “seek to escalate conflict in the region,” but it is “fully prepared to take further measures to protect our people and our facilities.”
Updated at 9:45 pm.