Trump slams Afghan entry to US, admits Russia’s Arctic dominance
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During a Thanksgiving call with US troops, Trump claimed Afghan nationals entered the US without proper checks, praised US space dominance, and admitted Russia leads in icebreakers.
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President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with the White House task force on the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the Oval Office in the White House, November 17, 2025. (AP)
In a rare admission of US military limitations, US President Donald Trump acknowledged that the United States remains far behind Russia in terms of its icebreaker fleet.
During a Thanksgiving Day call with US service members, Trump delivered a series of remarks on immigration, national defense, and military infrastructure, touching on Afghanistan, space, and Arctic readiness in a wide-ranging conversation that reflected both his political priorities and longstanding narratives.
"Russia has 48, and we have one, and that's just ridiculous," he said. Trump noted that 11 icebreakers are currently being built, but emphasized the scale of the gap.
Trump alleges Afghan nationals entered US without proper checks
Trump claimed that a significant number of Afghan nationals had entered the United States without undergoing adequate security vetting. “They were unchecked. There were many of them,” he stated, without providing further detail or substantiating the claim.
He added that those who arrived seeking asylum would be deported, though he did not specify which nationalities he meant. “When it comes to asylum, when they're flown in, it's very hard to get them out. No matter how you want to do it, it's very hard to get them out, but we're going to be getting them all out now," Trump said.
The Trump administration announced an immediate suspension of immigration processing for Afghan nationals following an incident in which an Afghan man shot two National Guard soldiers near the White House.
According to US Citizenship and Immigration Services, all Afghan-related immigration requests are now paused indefinitely pending a review of current vetting procedures.
The shooter, a 29-year-old Afghan national, reportedly arrived in the United States in 2021 under the Biden-era Operation Allies Welcome, a program designed to resettle Afghans who cooperated with the US military following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban.
US space superiority over Russia, China
The president praised the Space Force, which he established during his administration, claiming it had reversed what he described as a previous decline in US space capabilities compared to Russia and China.
"We were losing to China and Russia substantially, and now we're leading China and Russia substantially," he asserted.
