The United States is “less safe” now than ever because President Joe Biden has “destroyed the respect” other countries had for America with his actions in Afghanistan and on the border, former President Donald Trump declared Wednesday. 

“The border is incompetent, totally incompetent,” Trump said in an extensive interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo on her show “Mornings with Maria.” “We had the strongest border. Now it is the weakest border. Drugs are pouring in, people pouring in unchecked.”

With the nation heading into the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Bartiromo asked Trump if the United States is “safer today, or less safe” as the anniversary approaches.

“Well, now you are less safe because what happened is there is no respect for our country,” Trump responded. “Biden in six months has destroyed the respect. The border is incompetent, totally incompetent. We had the strongest border. Now (it’s the) weakest border. Drugs are pouring in; people are pouring in unchecked.”

Biden did not have to do anything about the border, but now, “criminals are pouring into our country,” Trump added.

But the situation with Afghanistan is even worse, Trump said.

“This makes the border look like baby food,” he said. “This is a much worse situation. The Taliban is naturally tough, fighting 2,000 years. That is what they do. You go to the hairdresser to make yourself beautiful, other people do other things. All they do is fight. That is all they do. That is what they want to do.”

Trump added that a “military defeat” is a “psychological defeat” and that countries like Russia, China, and North Korea are “watching this disaster and laughing at us; having a good time.” 

“Europe is laughing,” he added. “Europe has been very tough to deal with. Europe is as bad as China in many ways in terms of trade, certainly in terms of ripping us off on military and Europe is watching this, and they are laughing, they are all laughing. Not funny for us but funny for them, so badly handled.”

He also insisted that Biden erred by taking the military out of Afghanistan before evacuating Americans and the interpreters and others who helped the United States there over the past 20 years. 

“It’s like the captain jumping off the ship as the ship is sinking,” he said. “You take people off first. It’s always Americans first, as far as I am concerned. I don’t know, maybe I am old-fashioned, but it’s always Americans first, then we will take some people that helped us.”

He also criticized the current administration for leaving military equipment behind in Afghanistan. According to reports, the Taliban has even gotten its hands on American Black Hawk helicopters. 

“You’ve got to get people out, you got to get them out first,” Trump said. “Then take your equipment out and after the equipment is out, you bomb the hell out of the port so nobody else can use them. I was going to do that.”

“We can’t have this,” he said. “I frankly would have bombed every one of the ports, because you knew they weren’t going to.”

Trump also slammed ex-Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled the country as the Taliban took over Kabul, as a “crook.”

“If you go back to my statement from five or six years ago, I said Ghani is a crook,” said Trump, pointing out that the leader fled Afghanistan with “all the cash.”

“He had a tremendous control over the U.S. Senate,” said Trump.

Meanwhile, Biden and his administration have blamed Trump for what went wrong in Afghanistan. Trump responded, saying Biden “went wrong when he was born, as far as I am concerned.”

“Look at what he has done to foreign policy,” said Trump. “Everything was a disaster. No, he is a disaster. His people don’t know what they are doing. They need help.”

The trouble in Afghanistan is just starting, said Trump. 

“If you think this ends yesterday night, that is just the beginning,” said the former president. “The Taliban are tough and great negotiators. Can you imagine having the military go home, and leaving all those people? That is called the lamb being led to slaughter.”

And when asked if the United States should formally recognize the Taliban as the official government of Afghanistan, Trump responded that the takeover was a “coup of incompetent people.”