Right now, China occupies Bagram air base in Afghanistan: U.S. President Trump

Trump claims China occupies Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan after U.S. withdrawal in 2021, blaming Biden administration.

U.S. President Donald Trump has claimed that China now occupies the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, which was vacated by America in 2021.

The U.S. vacated Bagram, its biggest airfield in the country, in July 2021.

"...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,” Mr. Trump said while addressing the 2025 National Day of Prayer at the White House Thursday.

"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,” Mr. Trump said.

Blaming the Joe Biden administration, Trump said, “You wouldn't have had the horror show at Afghanistan, which I think is what gave (Russian President Vladimir) Putin the resolve to go in and do what he did because he looked at how badly we got out.

"We lost 13 soldiers, and  42 were horribly injured. Nobody ever talks about them, the legs, the arm, 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,” Mr. Trump said.

He appeared to make a reference to the August 26, 2021, Abbey Gate bombing at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul that killed 13 United States military service members and about 160 civilians.