Rep. Michael Waltz, a combat-decorated Green Beret, said Monday he has a "real issue" with underlying aspects of a deal that had been under discussion between the United States and the Taliban, and he is "thrilled" that President Donald Trump has walked away from it.
"The Taliban were promising that they could prevent al-Qaida from using Afghanistan as a base to attack the United States," the Florida Republican told Fox News' "Outnumbered Overtime." "I think that they were making promises that they don't have the military capability to uphold."
Over the weekend, Trump said he'd canceled a secret meeting at Camp David with Taliban and Afghanistan leaders, after a bombing in Kabul killed 12 people, including a U.S. soldier. He also said he's called off peace negotiations with the group.
In addition, the Taliban was not showing any willingness to move toward peace, said Waltz.
"After a string of many attacks that have killed dozens of Afghan civilians all over the country, just in the last few weeks, they kill another American soldier this past week on top of the three Green Berets that we lost in the week prior," said Waltz. "I think the Taliban have done nothing to show that they are moving towards peace. They won't agree to a cease-fire, they don't have the capability to stop terrorism from attacking the United States again. I think this was shaping up to be a bad deal."
The deal's timing also was bad, because of the approaching 9/11 observations, and for Afghanistan as well, as it is heading into its own national elections, and "they saw this as a move toward a takeover, which is what we don't want," he added.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.