President Donald Trump righted a wrong Monday by honoring the Gold Star families of the 13 soldiers killed during the Abbey Gate bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, in August 2021.
In an Oval Office event, Trump signed a proclamation to mark the fourth anniversary of the bombing, which happened Aug. 26, 2021, after President Joe Biden ordered a precipitous and what turned out to be disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Before signing the proclamation, Trump told the families of the slain standing behind him, “There are some great souls that are looking down on you right now, and they’re very proud of their parents, and brothers, and sisters. Moms and dads, especially. That’s what I seem to have dealt with, mostly. There’s nothing tougher.”
The president also thanked members of the media covering the event for being respectful of the families.
“They deserve it. They went through hell for no reason. It should have never happened,” Trump said.
President @realDonaldTrump meets with the Abbey Gate families and signs a Proclamation to commemorate the sacrifice of the 13 brave souls ????????????????
“There are some great souls that are looking down on you right now.” pic.twitter.com/wDi4xo5q0K
— Margo Martin (@MargoMartin47) August 25, 2025
Vice President J.D. Vance, a Marine Corps veteran who served during the Iraq war, added, “We’re so honored to have all of you here. I know that days like today can’t make the hurt go away. But hopefully four years on, we can start to remember with fondness and a little bit a joy, the people that were taken from us. We’re so proud of you.”
Regarding the proclamation that Trump signed, Vance said, “This is a rectification of a wrong — the fact that the [former] president of the United States lost your loved ones through incompetence, but never acknowledged it. And your government never actually put pen to paper to say we’re grateful for your sacrifice. We correct that wrong today.”
“We’re so proud of you and we’re so proud of your loved ones for giving their lives for our country,” says @VP to the Gold Star Families of the Abbey Gate heroes.
“The fact that the President of the United States lost your loved ones to incompetence, but never acknowledged it…… pic.twitter.com/IRpfbA2Z2G
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 25, 2025
Trump’s proclamation said, in part, “As our Nation remembers this atrocious attack, we honor the memory of every brave warrior who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.
“We join in grief with the families who senselessly lost a loved one, and we renew our solemn pledge to our 13 fallen patriots — we will never forget you; we will never forsake you; and your memory will live on forever.”
President Trump officially proclaims August 26, 2025, as a day in commemoration of the 4th anniversary of the attack at Abbey Gate.
Here is the Proclamation’s text:
On one of the darkest days in our Nation’s history, 4 years ago, the gates of hell sprung open when an evil… pic.twitter.com/4qVzUiKBAW
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 25, 2025
Trump’s honoring of the Gold Star families stood in stark contrast to Biden’s treatment of them. The 46th president was infamously caught on camera checking his watch during the dignified transfer ceremony at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
Biden appears to check his watch during the dignified transfer ceremony at Dover Air Force Base. pic.twitter.com/oMsBefnmfS
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 29, 2021
The New York Post reported at the time that family members of Marines killed during the attack slammed Biden, with one father calling his repeated check of his watch, “the most disrespectful thing I’ve ever seen.”
Mark Schmitz — whose 20-year-old son, Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz was a casualty — told The Washington Post that his family’s meeting with Biden “didn’t go well.”
“He talked a bit more about his own son [Beau Biden] than he did my son,” Schmitz said, “and that didn’t sit well with me.”
“When he just kept talking about his son so much, it was just — my interest was lost in that. I was more focused on my own son than what happened with him and his son,” Schmitz added. “I’m not trying to insult the president, but it just didn’t seem that appropriate to spend that much time on his own son.”
The Washington Post noted that Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015. Joe Biden often linked his son’s death to seven-month deployment to Iraq in 2008 and 2009.
During a February 2024 call to a Gold Star family who lost a loved one due to a drone strike near Syria, he reportedly said, “My son spent a year in Iraq; that’s how I lost him.”
“My son Beau, he [had] been near a burn pit in Baghdad and came down with stage four neuroblastoma, a brain tumor,” he added.
During Biden’s last State of the Union address in March 2024, after he said, “All Americans deserve to be safe,” the father of Lance Col. Kareem Nikoui, killed in the 2021 Kabul bombing, called out from the gallery, “Abbey Gate!”
Joe Biden gets heckled by Gold Star Father Steve Nikoui.
His son, Lance Col. Kareem Nikoui, was killed by a terrorist suicide bomber during Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/3BGGNguO6c
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 8, 2024
“Second Battalion, First Marines!” he then shouted. Capitol Police then removed him from the chamber.
Fox News reported last August on the third anniversary of the bombing that neither Biden nor then-Vice President Kamala Harris had ever reached out to the Abbey Gate Gold Star families.
The two may not like being reminded of the preventable tragedy that took place on their watch, but thankfully, Trump and Vance were not willing to let the Gold Star families’ sacrifice be forgotten.
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