US politics live: Trump announces ‘permanent pause’ on third world migration

The US President has unveiled his most extreme migration policy yet, threatening to reverse millions of admissions.

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US President Donald Trump has announced plans to “permanently pause” migration from what he calls “third world countries” and reverse millions of admissions granted under Joe Biden.

Earlier, Mr Trump attacked a reporter who challenged him on his false claim that Afghans admitted to the United States after its withdrawal from their country in 2021 faced “no vetting or anything”, calling her “a stupid person”.

The man suspected of shooting two National Guard members in Washington D.C. yesterday, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was among the cohort of Afghans granted entry to the US because they had worked with American forces. Those Afghans were, in fact, vetted.

Lakanwal arrived in mid-2021, applied for asylum in December of 2024, and was granted it by the Trump administration in April of this year.

During remarks to the media at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, from which he had just held a video call with American servicemembers, Mr Trump claimed the Afghan migrants were not just insufficiently vetted, but faced “no checking” at all.

“So many bad ones came in on the planes. They just walked in,” he said.

“Whoever the strongest people were. Physically, in a way. But whoever the strongest were, they got on the planes. There was no checking. They just swamped the planes, they took off. We had no idea who they were.”

We’ve heard similar claims about a lack of vetting from other senior members of the Trump administration since the shooting. The President grew annoyed when pressed on it.

“US officials say that the suspect worked very closely with the CIA in Afghanistan for years, that he was vetted, and it came up clean,” a reporter told him.

“He went cuckoo. I mean, he went nuts. And that happens, too. It happens too often with these people. You see them. But look, this is how they come in,” Mr Trump interjected.

He held up a picture of people desperately trying to get on a plane at Kabul’s airport during the chaotic withdrawal of Western forces in 2021.

The President seemed to think that is how people like the suspect in the Washington D.C. shooting got to America, without any checks at all.

“There was no vetting or anything. They came in unvetted. And we have a lot of others in this country. And we’re going to get them out,” he said.

“Actually your Department of Justice Inspector-General just reported, this year, that there was thorough vetting, by the Department of Homeland Security and by the FBI, of these Afghans who were brought into the US. So why do you blame the Biden administration?” the reporter followed up.

“Because they let them in. Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person?” Mr Trump told her.

“Because they came in on a plane along with thousands of other people who shouldn’t be here, and you’re just asking questions because you’re a stupid person. And there’s a law passed that it’s almost impossible to get them out. You can’t get them out.

“And they came in, they were unvetted, they were unchecked. And they came in on big planes, and it was disgraceful.

“And they came in, and they shouldn’t have come in. And the whole thing, frankly, was a mess. The whole Afghanistan situation was a mess.”

One of the National Guard troops shot yesterday, 20-year-old US Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, has tragically died. The other, Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, remains in critical condition in hospital.

Read on for the latest updates.

Originally published as US politics live: Trump announces ‘permanent pause’ on third world migration