US President Donald Trump said he wants the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan during a joint news conference today with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The air base, which sits north of the country’s capital Kabul, was the largest US military base in Afghanistan from October 2001 to July 2021, when the US turned it over to Afghan forces.
Trump has repeatedly insisted he would never have wanted the US to leave the base, where he made a surprise visit on Thanksgiving in 2019 during his first presidential term, primarily because of its proximity to China.
The site was secured at the time of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Earlier this month, Trump branded the Biden administration “so stupid” for withdrawing US troops from the base.
“We were going to leave Afghanistan, but we were going to leave it with strength and dignity, and we were going to keep Bagram,” Trump said during the conference with Starmer. “We gave it to them for nothing. We’re trying to get it back, by the way.”
After the 2021 withdrawal, a Pentagon report said $7 billion of military equipment was left behind by the US.
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