WASHINGTON D.C. — (THE THURSDAY TIMES) Two members of the West Virginia National Guard are in critical condition after a shooting near the White House that President Donald Trump has branded an act of terror, using the attack to justify an immediate freeze on immigration requests from Afghan nationals and a fresh escalation of his security-first agenda on the streets of Washington.
The suspect, identified by officials as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is an Afghan national who entered the United States in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, the refugee programme created for Afghans fleeing the Taliban takeover after the withdrawal of American troops. He was critically injured by return fire from Guard members at the scene and remains under armed guard in hospital, according to people briefed on the investigation.
In a video address from Florida, where he is spending the Thanksgiving period, Mr Trump called the attack “a heinous assault” and “an act of evil” and said it was proof that the Biden-era Afghan resettlement effort had endangered Americans. He described Afghanistan as “a hellhole on Earth” and pledged that his administration would re-examine every case of Afghans admitted under the 2021 airlifts, promising to deport “anyone who endangers our country” and declaring that “if they cannot love our country, we do not want them here.”
The attacker who critically wounded National Guard members in Washington D.C. is an Afghan national from Afghanistan, a hellhole on Earth, who entered in 2021 on Biden’s refugee airlifts. We will re-examine every such case and deport anyone who endangers our country. If they… pic.twitter.com/hLEP7SbYTv
— The Thursday Times (@thursday_times) November 27, 2025
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement on social media that Lakanwal was “one of the many” Afghans paroled into the country in September 2021 under the Biden administration, describing him as part of a cohort she claimed had been insufficiently vetted. Within hours of her statement, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that it had stopped processing immigration applications from Afghan nationals indefinitely while security reviews are carried out.
The suspect who shot our brave National Guardsmen is an Afghan national who was one of the many unvetted, mass paroled into the United States under Operation Allies Welcome on September 8, 2021, under the Biden Administration.
I will not utter this depraved individual’s name.…
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) November 27, 2025
The shooting unfolded on Wednesday near the entrance to the Farragut West metro station, only a few blocks from the White House, on one of the busiest travel days of the year. Witnesses reported an initial short burst of gunfire followed by a longer volley as the suspect opened fire on Guard members patrolling the area, prompting panic among commuters and tourists before security forces moved in and shot the attacker. Local officials said there was no indication that anyone else was involved and that Lakanwal appeared to have specifically targeted the National Guard soldiers.
The troops on the street were part of a wider deployment of more than 2,000 Guard members that Mr Trump had ordered to Washington in recent weeks, a move that has been challenged in federal court. Only days before the shooting, a federal judge had temporarily limited aspects of the deployment, ruling that parts of the operation were likely unlawful, although the Guard presence in central Washington continued under revised authorities. After the attack, Mr Trump directed the Pentagon to send an additional 500 Guard members to the capital, arguing that the violence showed the need for a reinforced military presence.
The FBI’s joint terrorism task force is leading the investigation into the shooting, examining Lakanwal’s digital footprint, any overseas contacts and potential ideological motivations. So far, investigators have said there is no evidence of a broader plot, but they are treating the incident as a possible terrorist attack because uniformed service members appear to have been deliberately targeted in a high-profile location close to the seat of federal power.
