Yes, Donald Trump did invite the Taliban to Camp David while he was president
During the debate, Vice President Kamala Harris said Trump invited the Taliban to Camp David while he was president. While true, the meeting didn’t happen.
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris met for the first time during the presidential debate in Philadelphia on Sept. 10. VERIFY analyzed claims from both Trump and Harris on debate night.
During the debate, ABC News moderator David Muir asked Harris about the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and the resulting Taliban takeover of the country. Here is a portion of her response:
“I agreed with President Biden’s decision to pull out of Afghanistan. Four presidents said they would and Joe Biden did. As a result, America’s taxpayers are not paying the $300 million a day we were paying for that endless war. As of today, there is not one member of the United States military who is in active duty in a combat zone in any war zone around the world, first time in a century. Let’s understand how we got to where we are. Donald Trump, when he was president, negotiated one of the weakest deals you can imagine. He calls himself a deal maker. Even his national security adviser said it was a weak, terrible deal. Here’s how it went down. He bypassed the Afghan government. He negotiated directly with a terrorist organization called the Taliban. The negotiation involves the Taliban getting 5,000 Taliban terrorists released. Get this, and the president at the time invited the Taliban to Camp David, a place of storied significance for us as Americans. A place where we honor the importance of American diplomacy, where we invite and receive respected world leaders. And this former president, as president, invited them to Camp David.”
Camp David is a country retreat for the president and has been used by every U.S. president since Franklin D. Roosevelt, who established it in 1942. The retreat has been the site of significant diplomatic events, including peace negotiations and international summits.
