On Saturday, former President Trump blasted President Biden for not “following the plan” provided for him by the previous administration on Afghanistan pullout.

Trump promised to keep the US out of “out of endless and costly foreign wars” throughout his 2016 campaign and in the White House, and the former president made time this weekend to attack what he sees as Biden’s foreign policy “weakness.”

“Our successor ran out of Afghanistan instead of following the plan our Administration left for him- a plan that protected our people and our property, and ensured the Taliban would never dream of taking our Embassy or providing a base for new attacks against America. The withdrawal would be guided by facts on the ground,” Trump said in an emailed statement hours after Biden’s comments.

“After I took out ISIS, I established a credible deterrent. That deterrent is now gone. The Taliban no longer has fear or respect for America, or America’s power,” he added.

“What a disgrace it will be when the Taliban raises their flag over America’s Embassy in Kabul,” Trump remarked. “This is complete failure through weakness, incompetence, and total strategic incoherence.”

The former president drew down soldiers in the region during the last year. While in office, Trump stated that he wanted all American soldiers out of Afghanistan by May 1 and welcomed the possibility as “a wonderful and positive thing to do.” However, he questioned the schedule and stated that the US “should get out earlier.”

Biden has long advocated for an end to the almost two-decade-old conflict in Afghanistan.

Trump’s remarks came just hours after Biden issued a statement on Saturday in which he appeared to criticize the previous administration for putting the Taliban “in the strongest position militarily since 2001.”

“When I came to office, I inherited a deal cut by my predecessor – which he invited the Taliban to discuss at Camp David on the eve of 9/11 of 2019 – that left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since 2001 and imposed a May 1, 2021 deadline on US forces,” Trump stated. “Shortly before he left office, he also drew US forces down to a bare minimum of 2,500.”

Biden said on Saturday that an extra 5,000 US soldiers would be deployed to help manage the withdrawal of US personnel and other partners from the region.

Biden claimed that Trump’s actions forced him to choose between sending additional soldiers “to fight once more in another country’s civil war” or removing troops and allies from the country.

Before Trump authorized a decrease, the number of soldiers in the nation was around 4,000.

Biden’s comments come as the Taliban offensives continue unabated, and the prospect of militants overthrowing the Afghan government and isolating Kabul grows.

The Taliban took control of Afghanistan’s second and third largest towns on Friday, and the Afghan government’s northern bastion, Mazar-i-Sharif, on Saturday.

Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan, was seized by Taliban fighters on Saturday.

On Saturday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and the leader of the Afghan High Council for National Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah.