The United States President Donald Trump claimed that China has taken over the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan that was vacated by U.S. forces in July 2021 in the final stage of United States withdrawal from the country.
Speaking at the 2025 National Day of Prayer ceremony at the White House on Thursday, Trump said, "We were going to keep Bagram, the big Air Force base, an hour outside of where China makes its nuclear weapons. That's what they do — make nuclear missiles — and I told you, you can't lose Bagram."
He continued, "They left behind Bagram, and China controls Bagram today. So tragic, so mad. One of the world's biggest air bases with one of the strongest and longest runways just an hour from where China produces nuclear missiles."
Bagram Airbase, which is in Parwan Province, Afghanistan, about 47 kilometers north of the capital city Kabul, was the largest U.S. military facility in Afghanistan. It has an 11,800-foot runway to support bombers and heavy transport aircraft. The facility was handed over to Afghan forces in July 2021, just before the Taliban seizure.
Trump seized the moment to once again decry the Biden administration's handling of the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan. Referring to the deadly bombing at Kabul airport's Abbey Gate on August 26, 2021, which claimed the lives of 13 American troops and approximately 160 Afghan civilians, Trump said, "You wouldn't have had the horror show at Afghanistan. We lost 13 soldiers, and 42 were horribly injured — legs, arms, faces. Horribly injured. That would never have happened. Not even possible to have happened.".
He called the withdrawal "perhaps the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country," and emphasized that it was not the withdrawal, but "the way they withdrew" that was catastrophic. Trump echoed an argument he has made in previous speeches, stating the chaotic retreat might have emboldened Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"I believe Putin saw that, and he said, 'Great, it's a great moment. I'm going to go get it.' It was his pet apple," Trump asserted. "I talked to him for hours. I told him, 'Vladimir, do not even consider it.' And he would not have considered it. But then when he looked at that, I believe that he picked up some extra brashness, and he went in."
The former president did not offer any evidence in support of his assertion that China now holds the Bagram base, an unsubstantiated assertion that is neither supported by the U.S. administration nor by external sources.
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