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President Donald Trump has announced that the United States is seeking to regain control of Bagram Air Base from the Taliban.

Some shit you should know before you dig in: If you’re unaware, Bagram Air Base was the largest and most strategically significant US military installation in Afghanistan, located about 40 miles north of Kabul. Originally built by the Soviet Union in the 1950s, it was later expanded by the United States after the 2001 invasion and served as the central hub for American military operations throughout the two-decade-long war. Bagram housed thousands of US and NATO troops, intelligence assets, a detention facility, and massive logistical and airlift operations that supported counterterrorism missions across the region. It was also a key surveillance and drone-launching point for missions targeting Taliban, al-Qaeda, and ISIS elements. The US officially handed the base over to the Afghan government in July 2021 as part of the withdrawal plan initiated under Trump and finalized by President Biden. Just weeks later, amid the rapid collapse of Afghan forces and the fall of Kabul, the Taliban seized control of the base.

What’s going on now: While speaking alongside UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer during a joint press conference, President Donald Trump revealed that the US is actively “trying to get [Bagram] back” from the Taliban. “We gave it to them for nothing,” Trump said. “We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us. We want that base back.” He framed the effort as part of a broader strategy to reclaim American strategic leverage in the region, and added that this was “a little breaking news.”

Trump noted that one of the key reasons for reclaiming Bagram is its geographic proximity to China’s nuclear development sites. “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 said. This echoes previous remarks he made earlier in 2024, when he argued that Bagram wasn’t just about Afghanistan—it was about countering China.

Trump has also claimed in the past that China may already be using Bagram. Earlier this year he made the accusation, resulting in both China and the Taliban denying the claims.