Trump canceled his secret meeting with the Taliban. The negotiations were in trouble anyway.

In tweets posted late Saturday night, President Trump dropped a bombshell: He had canceled a planned secret meeting with President Ashraf Ghani and Taliban representatives scheduled for Sunday at Camp David. He also appeared to suspend talks with the Taliban, scuppering a tentative agreement struck less than a week ago by his special envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, after nine rounds of negotiations.

The agreement called for the withdrawal of 5,000 of the 14,000 U.S. troops remaining in Afghanistan, along with the closure of five bases, over the next 135 days, a prelude to the full withdrawal of U.S. forces by the 2020 presidential election. For its part, the Taliban pledged to reduce, though not cease, its attacks, while also agreeing to enter into direct negotiations with the Afghan government.