In the days before the twin explosions rocked the international airport in Kabul and left U.S. service members dead, former President Donald Trump and his associates sought to differentiate their planned withdrawal from Afghanistan from the one being carried out by President Joe Biden.

“How dare Biden force our Military to run off the battlefield in Afghanistan and desert what now have become many thousands of American hostages,” Trump said in a statement through his political action committee earlier this week. “We had Afghanistan and Kabul in perfect control with just 2,500 soldiers and he destroyed it when it was demanded that they flee!”