Trump tears into Biden at packed rally as US confronts string of escalating crisis

In what seemed like a preview of a potential stump speech should former President Trump eventually follow through on his flirtations to launch a 2024 White House bid, Trump once again took aim at his successor on Saturday night.

"One year ago this month in my nomination speech," Trump told the large crowd of supporters at a large rally in Cullman, Alabama, harkening back to his 2020 Republican National Convention address, "I warned the entire country of the disastrous consequences of a Biden presidency."

Trump then blasted President Biden, criticizing him over crime, inflation and the haphazard evacuation of U.S. personnel and allies from Afghanistan after repressive Taliban forces rolled into Kabul, the central Asian country’s capital and largest city.

"This is a great stain on the reputation of our country," the former president charged. 

Trump, who struck a deal with the Taliban in February of last year that called for all U.S. troops to depart Afghanistan by May 2021 and who during his watch reduced U.S. forces to their lowest level in Afghanistan in two decades, on Saturday called the Taliban "great negotiators, tough fighters."

Trump also criticized Biden for failing to "stop the virus," as he pointed to the surge in COVID cases due to the highly contagious delta variant.

"Could you imagine if I were president and the virus was surging back?" the former president said before slamming Biden for "reimposing mask mandates and threatening new restrictions."