The Daily Fuckup

President Donald Trump on Nov. 27, 2025, turned the Washington shooting of two National Guard members into a broader attack on Biden-era Afghan admissions. Speaking during a Thanksgiving call with service members at Mar-a-Lago, Trump called the suspect a “monster,” held up an image of people packed onto a plane during the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, and framed the case as proof that the country had let the wrong people in. ([presidency.ucsb.edu](https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/pool-reports-november-27-2025))

By then, federal officials had identified the suspect as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national. The Justice Department said Lakanwal, 29, was charged in the fatal shooting of National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom and the wounding of another Guardsman, Andrew Wolfe. The department said Beckstrom died on Nov. 27, 2025, and described the shooting as occurring on Nov. 26, a few blocks from the White House. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/afghan-national-charged-murder-national-guard-soldier-sarah-beckstrom))

Trump’s remarks went well beyond the immediate case. In the pool report of the call, he said the shooting showed the need to reconsider people who came to the United States from Afghanistan under the Biden administration. He also pressed the idea that the attack reflected a larger failure of screening and border control, using the same call to sharpen his immigration message in front of uniformed service members. ([presidency.ucsb.edu](https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/pool-reports-november-27-2025))

The administration’s response moved in parallel. Federal officials announced restrictions on parts of the immigration system for Afghan nationals after the shooting, including pauses in asylum decisions and tighter processing for some Afghan passport holders, according to contemporaneous reports and official statements. Those steps were policy actions, not a finding about the suspect’s motive, which investigators had not yet settled at the time of Trump’s comments. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/6548fbcba4b6efce59a38eeed32b4865))