US President Donald Trump speaks during a dinner with Central Asian leaders in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on 6 November, 2025.AFP
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that an Afghan man who fled the Taliban was the suspect in the shooting of two National Guard soldiers near the White House, calling it an "act of terror."
The announcement in a brief video message signaled the intertwining of three politically explosive issues -- Trump's controversial use of the military at home, immigration, and the legacy of the US war in Afghanistan.
The incident, which left two Guard members critically wounded, was "an act of evil, an act of hatred and an act of terror," Trump said. "It was a crime against our entire nation."
He confirmed that the man taken into custody after the daylight shooting two blocks from the White House was "a foreigner who entered our country from Afghanistan."