Filip Timotija
Fri, September 19, 2025
THE HILL
Taliban officials reject Trump Bagram Airfield return suggestion
Taliban officials rejected President Trump’s suggestion that Bagram Airfield near Kabul could return to U.S. control after it was abandoned during the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan under the Biden administration.
The Taliban indicated it is willing to talk with the Trump administration about the air base — which was built by the Soviet Union in the 1950s — but said no U.S. service members would be permitted.
Zakir Jalaly, an official at the Taliban Foreign Ministry, said Thursday that the U.S. and Afghanistan can have economic and political relations based on “mutual respect and shared interests,” but the U.S. will not be allowed to have a military presence in the country.
Muhajir Farahi, the deputy minister of information and culture in Afghanistan, shared a part of a poem on social platform X, which in part said that those who “once smashed their heads against the rocks with us, their minds have still not found peace.”
Trump, during a press conference early Thursday in the United Kingdom alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said the U.S. “gave” the base to the Taliban “for nothing.”
“We’re trying to get it back, by the way,” the president said. “That could be a little breaking news: We’re trying to get it back, because they need things from us.”
“We want that base back, but one of the reasons we want the base is, as you know, it’s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons,” he added.
The president did not disclose other details on plans to recover the air base.
The base fell to the Taliban after the chaotic 2021 withdrawal of the U.S. forces from Afghanistan during the Biden administration. It was the biggest U.S. military base in the country.
The president said in February that the U.S. should have kept the base under its purview and alleged that China’s People’s Liberation Army took control of it, something Beijing and the Taliban have denied.
U.S. officials have recently engaged with officials in Kabul over Americans who are held in Afghanistan. Trump’s special hostage envoy Adam Boehler and Zalmay Khalilzad, ex-U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan, had a meeting with the Taliban’s foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, Reuters reported.
Trump has often criticized the August 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, where 13 U.S. service members were killed by a suicide bombing at Kabul’s airport.
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Andrea Hamblin
Sat, September 20, 2025
THE TELEGRAPH
The Taliban usually celebrates the anniversary of its takeover at Bagram but did not hold a parade this year - AHMAD SAHEL ARMAN
Donald Trump warned Afghanistan on Saturday that “bad things” would happen if if the Taliban did not “give back” the country’s largest military airfield.
The US president’s vague threat marks an escalation in a row over Bagram air base, after the Taliban condemned him for suddenly announcing during his visit to London that Washington was attempting to retake control of the site.
“If Afghanistan doesn’t give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN!!!” Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Saturday evening.
On Thursday, Mr Trump said at a press conference alongside Sir Keir Starmer that he wanted the airbase back because of its strategic proximity to China.
The president has repeatedly said that Bagram is under Chinese control, a claim the Taliban and Beijing rejects.
“We’re trying to get it back – by the way, that could be a little breaking news,” Mr Trump said. “We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us.”
He added: “One of the reasons we want the base is, as you know, it’s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons.”
The Taliban called those remarks “baseless and strange”.
The Taliban usually celebrates the anniversary of its takeover at Bagram but did not hold a parade this year - AHMAD SAHEL ARMAN
Donald Trump warned Afghanistan on Saturday that “bad things” would happen if if the Taliban did not “give back” the country’s largest military airfield.
The US president’s vague threat marks an escalation in a row over Bagram air base, after the Taliban condemned him for suddenly announcing during his visit to London that Washington was attempting to retake control of the site.
“If Afghanistan doesn’t give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN!!!” Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Saturday evening.
On Thursday, Mr Trump said at a press conference alongside Sir Keir Starmer that he wanted the airbase back because of its strategic proximity to China.
The president has repeatedly said that Bagram is under Chinese control, a claim the Taliban and Beijing rejects.
“We’re trying to get it back – by the way, that could be a little breaking news,” Mr Trump said. “We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us.”
He added: “One of the reasons we want the base is, as you know, it’s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons.”
The Taliban called those remarks “baseless and strange”.
The president’s comments were “far from the facts and filled with hatred”, Mufti Abdul Mateen Qaneh, a Taliban spokesman, told The Telegraph.
“We will never hand over Bagram to anyone,” Mr Qaneh said. “Such remarks are baseless and strange.”
The air base, which is about 40 miles (65km) north of Kabul, served for 20 years as the linchpin of US operations after the campaign to topple the Taliban began in 2001, following the September 11 terrorist attacks.
It was abandoned by American forces in July 2021, shortly before the Taliban seized control of the country.
Mr Trump has criticised Joe Biden, the former president, over the tumultuous withdrawal from the region, complaining that $7 billion-worth of American weapons and other assets were left in the hands of the Taliban, which is categorised as a specially designated global terrorist group by the US.
Trump warns Afghanistan over return of strategic Bagram Air Base to US control
Brie Stimson
Sat, September 20, 2025
FOX NEWS
President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened Afghanistan, which is governed by the Taliban, if Bagram Air Base isn’t returned to the United States.
"If Afghanistan doesn’t give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN!!!" he wrote on Truth Social.
The president didn’t elaborate on what consequences the country might face.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.
On Thursday, the president said the administration is "trying" to get the former U.S. Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan "back" from the Taliban.
In remarks to the press while standing alongside U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the president criticized the handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan under President Joe Biden and said he had "a little breaking news."
"We're trying to get it back," Trump said. "We're trying to get it back because they need things from us."
Trump did not expand on whom he was referring to or, if referring to the Taliban, the terrorist organization that took over the country in 2021, what they "need" from the U.S.
"We want that base back, but one of the reasons we want the base is, as you know, it's an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons," Trump added.
On Saturday evening, Trump told reporters the administration wants Bagram back "right away," and "if they don't do it, you're going to find out what I'm going to do."
President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened Afghanistan, which is governed by the Taliban, if Bagram Air Base isn’t returned to the United States.
"If Afghanistan doesn’t give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN!!!" he wrote on Truth Social.
The president didn’t elaborate on what consequences the country might face.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.
On Thursday, the president said the administration is "trying" to get the former U.S. Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan "back" from the Taliban.
In remarks to the press while standing alongside U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the president criticized the handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan under President Joe Biden and said he had "a little breaking news."
"We're trying to get it back," Trump said. "We're trying to get it back because they need things from us."
Trump did not expand on whom he was referring to or, if referring to the Taliban, the terrorist organization that took over the country in 2021, what they "need" from the U.S.
"We want that base back, but one of the reasons we want the base is, as you know, it's an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons," Trump added.
On Saturday evening, Trump told reporters the administration wants Bagram back "right away," and "if they don't do it, you're going to find out what I'm going to do."
Taliban helicopters land at the Bagram Air Base, in Bagram, Parwan province in Afghanistan in 2024.
The Taliban took over the country after the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan in 2021.
The U.S. claimed Bagram Air Base, which was built by the Soviets in the 1950s, in 2001 when the military went into Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks.
In 2021, when the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan, it secretly left the base in the middle of the night on July 1, leaving it to the Afghan government.
The Taliban captured the base six weeks later in August of 2021, on the same day Kabul fell.
Earlier this year, White House hostage envoy Adam Boehler met with Taliban officials in Kabul while working to get hostage George Glezmann released, the first direct meeting since the pullout in 2021.
U.S. soldiers board a Air Force plane at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 30, 2021.
Boehler, along with another U.S. envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, met with the Taliban's foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, and reportedly discussed ways to "develop bilateral relations between the two countries, issues related to citizens, and investment opportunities in Afghanistan," according to a Taliban statement.
The removal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan began during the first Trump administration in March 2020, and open-source intelligence showed that the Taliban had been making gains across Afghanistan in the year leading up to the August 2021 withdrawal.
Under the deal forged by the first Trump administration, the U.S. agreed to withdraw all U.S. forces by May 1, 2021, but Biden extended the withdrawal date to August 2021.
Fox News’ Caitlin McFall and Lucas Tomlinson contributed to this report.
Trump says 'bad things' will happen if Afghanistan does not return Bagram air base
Katharine Jackson and Phil Stewart
Sat, September 20, 2025
FILE PHOTO: U.S. vacates Bagram air base in Afghanistan - officials
By Katharine Jackson and Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened "bad things" would happen to Afghanistan if it does not give back control of the Bagram air base to the United States, and declined to rule out sending in troops to retake it.
"If Afghanistan doesn’t give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN," Trump said in a Truth Social post.
Trump said on Thursday that the United States had sought to regain control of the base used by American forces following the attacks of September 11, 2001. He told reporters on Friday that he was speaking with Afghanistan about it.
The withdrawal of American forces in 2021 led to a takeover of U.S. bases, and the toppling of the U.S.-backed government in Kabul, by the Islamist Taliban movement.
Afghan officials have expressed opposition to a revived U.S. presence.
Current and former U.S. officials privately caution that re-occupying Bagram air base in Afghanistan might end up looking like a re-invasion of the country, requiring more than 10,000 troops as well as deployment of advanced air defenses.
Trump, who has previously said he wants the United States to acquire territories and sites ranging from the Panama Canal to Greenland, has appeared focused on Bagram for years.
Asked on Saturday whether he would send in U.S. troops to retake the base, Trump declined to give a direct answer, saying: "We won't talk about that."
"We're talking now to Afghanistan and we want it back and we want it back soon, right away. And if they don't do it - if they don't do it, you're going to find out what I'm gonna do," he told reporters at the White House.
The sprawling airfield was the main base for American forces in Afghanistan during the two decades of war that followed the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington by al Qaeda.
The base once counted fast-food restaurants like Burger King and Pizza Hut catering to U.S. troops as well as shops selling everything from electronics to Afghan rugs. It also hosted a massive prison complex.
Experts say the sprawling air base would be difficult to secure initially and would require massive manpower to operate and protect.
Even if the Taliban accepted the U.S. re-occupation of Bagram following negotiations, it would need to be defended from a host of threats including Islamic State and al Qaeda militants inside Afghanistan.
It could also be vulnerable to an advanced missile threat from Iran, which attacked a major U.S. air base in Qatar in June after the United States struck Iranian nuclear sites.
(Reporting by Katharine Jackson; Editing by Leslie Adler and Andrea Ricci)
Maddow Blog | Trump, eyeing return to Afghanistan, says U.S. is ‘trying to get’ back Bagram Airbase
Sat, September 20, 2025
FILE PHOTO: U.S. vacates Bagram air base in Afghanistan - officials
By Katharine Jackson and Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened "bad things" would happen to Afghanistan if it does not give back control of the Bagram air base to the United States, and declined to rule out sending in troops to retake it.
"If Afghanistan doesn’t give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN," Trump said in a Truth Social post.
Trump said on Thursday that the United States had sought to regain control of the base used by American forces following the attacks of September 11, 2001. He told reporters on Friday that he was speaking with Afghanistan about it.
The withdrawal of American forces in 2021 led to a takeover of U.S. bases, and the toppling of the U.S.-backed government in Kabul, by the Islamist Taliban movement.
Afghan officials have expressed opposition to a revived U.S. presence.
Current and former U.S. officials privately caution that re-occupying Bagram air base in Afghanistan might end up looking like a re-invasion of the country, requiring more than 10,000 troops as well as deployment of advanced air defenses.
Trump, who has previously said he wants the United States to acquire territories and sites ranging from the Panama Canal to Greenland, has appeared focused on Bagram for years.
Asked on Saturday whether he would send in U.S. troops to retake the base, Trump declined to give a direct answer, saying: "We won't talk about that."
"We're talking now to Afghanistan and we want it back and we want it back soon, right away. And if they don't do it - if they don't do it, you're going to find out what I'm gonna do," he told reporters at the White House.
The sprawling airfield was the main base for American forces in Afghanistan during the two decades of war that followed the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington by al Qaeda.
The base once counted fast-food restaurants like Burger King and Pizza Hut catering to U.S. troops as well as shops selling everything from electronics to Afghan rugs. It also hosted a massive prison complex.
Experts say the sprawling air base would be difficult to secure initially and would require massive manpower to operate and protect.
Even if the Taliban accepted the U.S. re-occupation of Bagram following negotiations, it would need to be defended from a host of threats including Islamic State and al Qaeda militants inside Afghanistan.
It could also be vulnerable to an advanced missile threat from Iran, which attacked a major U.S. air base in Qatar in June after the United States struck Iranian nuclear sites.
(Reporting by Katharine Jackson; Editing by Leslie Adler and Andrea Ricci)
Maddow Blog | Trump, eyeing return to Afghanistan, says U.S. is ‘trying to get’ back Bagram Airbase
Steve Benen
Fri, September 19, 2025
MSNBC
Around this time four years ago, as Donald Trump watched in frustration as Joe Biden ended the war in Afghanistan — a goal the Republican had wanted to complete, but didn’t — the then-former president suggested it might be a good idea to send U.S. troops back into the country.
In a written statement, Trump said that if the Taliban didn’t return equipment left behind in Afghanistan, the United States should consider going back in “with unequivocal Military force.”
Oddly enough, he didn’t let this go. Around the same time, Trump headlined a rally and told attendees, in reference to Afghanistan, “You know what, we have to go in and we should go in when it’s right and we now may have to be forced to go in. ... We may be forced to go in, and we may not be forced, but we may be forced to go in.” He kept this going well into 2022.
Years later, Trump is back in the White House, and he’s still talking about going back into Afghanistan. NBC News reported:
Trump said that the U.S. was ‘trying’ to get back Bagram Airbase, a former U.S. military base in Afghanistan. He did not provide details or what it would mean for U.S. troops, who left Afghanistan in 2021 during a widely criticized withdrawal.
Speaking to reporters at an event in England, Trump said of Bagram, “We’re trying to get it back, by the way. OK, that could be a little breaking news. We’re trying to get it back, because they need things from us. We want that base back.”
He didn’t appear to be kidding.
The Taliban, for what it’s worth, made clear soon after that it’s not willing to return the base to American control, and it’s difficult to imagine the White House changing Taliban leaders’ minds.
Time will tell just how much time, energy, effort and resources the president is prepared to invest in this apparent priority, and whether he’ll invite a public backlash by “trying” to get back into Afghanistan.
Around this time four years ago, as Donald Trump watched in frustration as Joe Biden ended the war in Afghanistan — a goal the Republican had wanted to complete, but didn’t — the then-former president suggested it might be a good idea to send U.S. troops back into the country.
In a written statement, Trump said that if the Taliban didn’t return equipment left behind in Afghanistan, the United States should consider going back in “with unequivocal Military force.”
Oddly enough, he didn’t let this go. Around the same time, Trump headlined a rally and told attendees, in reference to Afghanistan, “You know what, we have to go in and we should go in when it’s right and we now may have to be forced to go in. ... We may be forced to go in, and we may not be forced, but we may be forced to go in.” He kept this going well into 2022.
Years later, Trump is back in the White House, and he’s still talking about going back into Afghanistan. NBC News reported:
Trump said that the U.S. was ‘trying’ to get back Bagram Airbase, a former U.S. military base in Afghanistan. He did not provide details or what it would mean for U.S. troops, who left Afghanistan in 2021 during a widely criticized withdrawal.
Speaking to reporters at an event in England, Trump said of Bagram, “We’re trying to get it back, by the way. OK, that could be a little breaking news. We’re trying to get it back, because they need things from us. We want that base back.”
He didn’t appear to be kidding.
The Taliban, for what it’s worth, made clear soon after that it’s not willing to return the base to American control, and it’s difficult to imagine the White House changing Taliban leaders’ minds.
Time will tell just how much time, energy, effort and resources the president is prepared to invest in this apparent priority, and whether he’ll invite a public backlash by “trying” to get back into Afghanistan.
But in the meantime, spare a thought for those voters who backed the Republican ticket last year because they saw Trump as the candidate of foreign policy restraint and isolationism.
Those assumptions were not entirely ridiculous. In June 2020, in remarks at the West Point graduation ceremony, the president declared, “We are restoring the fundamental principles that the job of the American soldier is not to rebuild foreign nations, but defend — and defend strongly — our nation from foreign enemies. We are ending the era of endless wars. In its place is a renewed, clear-eyed focus on defending America’s vital interests. It is not the duty of U.S. troops to solve ancient conflicts in faraway lands.”
Five years later, however, Trump has launched deadly military strikes on civilian boats in international waters. And launched preemptive military strikes on targets in Iran. And initiated a bombing campaign in Yemen. And announced his desire to annex Canada, Greenland, the Panama Canal and the Gaza Strip. And directed the Pentagon to target drug cartels in Mexico.
And is now once again focusing on Afghanistan.
If you voted for Trump because you expected restraint on foreign policy and the use of military force abroad, I have some awful news for you.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
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