President Trump said he is aiming to regain control of Bagram Air Base, which has been under Taliban control since U.S. forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021.
“We gave it to them for nothing. We’re trying to get it back, by the way. That could be a little breaking news, we’re trying to get it back because they need things from us,” Trump said Thursday of the base.
“We want that base back but one of the reasons we want the base is, as you know, it’san hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons,” he added.
The president, while speaking at a press conference in the United Kingdom with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, did not expand on plans to get the base in U.S. hands, nor did he explain what he meant by the Taliban needing “things” from the U.S.
This is the first time Trump has publicly confirmed he wants to find a way to get Bagram back under U.S. control. CNN reported that the president had quietly been pushing his national security officials for months to find a way to get the base back from the Taliban.
The base was the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan and fell to the Taliban during the chaotic withdrawal under the Biden administration.
At least, Trump has wanted to claw back the base, as his senior national security officials believe it is needed to surveil China, gain access to rare earth minerals in Afghanistan and establish a counterterrorism presence to combat ISIS, according to CNN.
Trump in February asserted the U.S. should have kept control of the base and claimed that China’s People’s Liberation Army had taken control of it, which China previously denied.
Trump has been critical of the 2021 departure, which he set in motion in 2020 when he negotiated and signed a deal with the Taliban committing to an earlier timeline for the drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Former President Biden delayed the withdrawal by a few months before following through on the exit in August 2021, when 13 U.S. service members were killed by a suicide bombing at the airport in Kabul.
Welcome to The Hill’s Defense & National Security newsletter, I’m Ellen Mitchell — your guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond.
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Upcoming things we’re watching in and around the defense world:
The Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association and the Intelligence and National Security Alliancewill hold the 2025 Intelligence and National Security Summit at 9 a.m.
The National Institute for Deterrence Studieswill host a virtual seminar on “Nuclear Priorities for Trump 2.0,” at 10 a.m.
What We’re Reading
News we’ve flagged from other outlets:
Mass deportations ensnare immigrant service members, veterans (News21)
Military leaders consider recruiting campaign centered around Charlie Kirk (NBC News)
A no-fly zone over Ukraine? The challenges for the West would be huge. (The New York Times)
Opinion in The Hill
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