U.S. President Donald Trump has alleged that China has taken control of the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, which the United States abandoned in July 2021. Bagram had been America’s largest military airfield in the country. 

While speaking at the 2025 National Day of Prayer at the White House on Thursday, Donald Trump said, “…But we were going to keep Bagram, the big Air Force base, which is one hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons. That’s what they do. They make their nuclear missiles, and one hour away from Bagram, and I said you can’t give up Bagram.” He went on to say, “They gave up Bagram, and right now, China occupies Bagram. So sad, so crazy. One of the biggest air bases in the world, among the strongest and longest runways anywhere in the world, one hour away from where China makes its nuclear missiles.” 

Trump blamed the Biden administration, claiming, “ You wouldn’t have had the horror show at Afghanistan, which I think is what gave Putin the resolve to go in and do what he did because he looked at how badly we got out." Referring to the tragic outcome, he said, “We lost 13 soldiers, and 42 were horribly injured. Nobody ever talks about them, the legs, the arms, the face. Horribly injured, that would have never happened. Not even possible to have happened, and we would have been out before he was out.”

He seemed to be referring to the bombing that took place on August 26, 2021, at Abbey Gate near Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport, where 13 U.S. service members and around 160 civilians lost their lives. Trump criticised the Biden administration’s handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, calling it “disastrous and incompetent.” In a speech to the Joint Session of Congress in 2025, he clarified, “Not that they were withdrawing, it was the way they withdrew. Perhaps the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country,” 

“It would have been great to have while we were keeping it, but they ran out of there like nobody could believe, and I think Putin saw that and he said, ‘Wow, this is a great time. I can go get it because it was the apple of his eye. I could always see that. I talked to him for hours. It was the apple of his eye, but I said, ‘Vladimir, don’t even think about it. ’ And he wouldn’t have thought about it. But when he saw that, I think that’s the reason actually he gained some additional courage, and he went in,” Trump stated.

Bagram Airfield is situated in Parwan Province, Afghanistan, about 11 kilometres from Charikar and 47 kilometres from Kabul. It features a runway that stretches 11,800 feet, making it suitable for handling bombers and heavy cargo planes.