THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

You will be betrayed by Trump. The how and when of it will be determined by when it is convenient to his boss Vlad Putin, but it will happen. Just ask the folks in Afghanistan.

Last year, when President Trump announced a new strategy 16 years into the Afghan war, many in Afghanistan saw it as a much-needed refocusing of the American commitment.

“Conditions on the ground — not arbitrary timetables — will guide our strategy from now on,” Mr. Trump said at the time. “America’s enemies must never know our plans or believe they can wait us out.”

In the year since then, as the architects of that strategy have exited the administration one by one, many in Afghanistan came to believe that Mr. Trump — who never met with his former top commander in the country — had never really been persuaded, and that his impatience with the war was winning out.

On Friday, that suspicion seemed to be confirmed, as Afghan officials and Western diplomats woke to the unexpected news that Mr. Trump had ordered half of the 14,000 American troops in Afghanistan home, even as the war continues to rage and the Taliban threaten much of the country.

For many in the Afghan leadership, shock quickly turned to a sense of betrayal.

Most officials and diplomats said they would only speak on condition of anonymity because they were still assessing the situation. But many were less concerned about the reduction in troop numbers — though struggling Afghan forces still need hands-on help — than by the way news of it emerged, which they said appeared to undermine not only the Afghan government, but also some of the most senior American officials working for a peace deal.

Afghan officials said they had not been consulted or even warned about the drawdown. And the timing was likely to complicate the American push for peace talks with the Taliban, which requires maintaining pressure, or at least holding the line, on the battlefield.

Just this week, senior American diplomats had conducted two days of extensive talks with representatives of the insurgency, with the future of the United States military presence among the topics discussed. And hours before the troop pulldown became public knowledge, Zalmay Khalilzad, the most senior American diplomat involved in the talks, said he had made it clear to the Taliban that the American commitment was firm.

The Donald is consistent about one thing, he will screw everybody he can, sometimes just because he can.