The Abdul embarrassment

Many people criticized Trump for talking about a Taliban leader named Abdul during the debate

So apparently there was much hand-wringing when Trump talked about his interactions with Abdul Ghani Baradar, the current (but unofficial) prime minister of Afghanistan. Apparently when Trump referred to Abdul as still being the leader of the Taliban, the left went crazy because according to google and Wikipedia, Hibatullha Akhundzada is the actual "leader of the Taliban". So Trump was either mistaken, lying, or confused. Or in one case, a liberal journalist accused him of being racist for just calling a random Middle Eastern guy (whom they assumed to be Akhundzada) Abdul rather than his correct name. Some even suggested that no such person (Abdul) even existed.

Of course, Baradar is not just the current acting Prime Minister in charge of Afghanistan (including the Taliban) but he was the co-founder of the Taliban. Trump's story was the famous one where he showed Baradar surveillance feed of his home, something of a implicit threat. Then he told Abdul that he believed him to still be the man pulling the Taliban strings (still the leader) and that he better make sure that the Taliban behaves. This wasn't Trump suggesting that Wikipedia listed Baradar as the leader, but rather a suggestion by Trump that as co-founder and Prime Minister that Baradar had the power to control the Taliban and that he would be held accountable if he didn't.

Now you see people trying to walk back their idiot attacks or are still being technical by suggesting that Baradar has never held the official title of "leader of the Taliban". There is now an open acknowledgement that Baradar was the official that Americans were negotiating with, and the idea that people suggested that Trump never dealt with a man named Abdul is simply a show of stupidity and TDS to the largest of degrees. It seems that rather these people knee jerk their responses with limited knowledge, perhaps these keyboard warriors should allow some level of respect for someone who did spend four years dealing with world leaders and actually does remember who from Afghanistan he negotiated with and whether or not that man still had pull over the Taliban.

I guess you can take the word of the people most heaving involved first hand, or you can trust what Wikipedia says. I guess many will stick with the latter and doesn't that just about sum up 2024 and our Gen-Z inspired logic.