In a fiery national address from Palm Beach Wednesday night, President Donald Trump accused former President Joe Biden of unleashing a catastrophic national security failure, blaming Biden’s Afghanistan refugee program for allowing into the country the man suspected of fatally ambushing two National Guard members in Washington, D.C. earlier the same day.

The incident — which law enforcement officials are calling a “deliberate, close-range ambush” — rattled the nation’s capital and immediately revived the political firestorm over Afghan evacuation policies, immigration vetting, and what Trump repeatedly described as the “20 million unknown and unvetted foreigners” admitted into the United States during Biden’s term.

Speaking from behind a presidential lectern draped in the American flag, Trump declared: “I can report tonight that based on the best available information, the Department of Homeland Security is confident that the suspect in custody is a foreigner who entered our country from Afghanistan, a hellhole on Earth. He was flown in by the Biden administration in September 2021 on those infamous flights that everybody was talking about.”

Trump continued, laying blame for the shooting squarely on Biden’s decisions in the aftermath of the chaotic U.S. military withdrawal from Kabul: “His status was extended under legislation signed by President Biden — a disastrous president, the worst in the history of our country.”

The president’s remarks came just hours after the ambush left two D.C.-based National Guard soldiers dead in what officials described as a “targeted execution-style attack” near Fort Totten. A suspect was apprehended shortly after the incident and is currently in federal custody. Investigators have not yet released his name publicly, but Trump’s speech signaled the administration’s strong belief that the suspect was admitted to the U.S. through Biden-era humanitarian parole pathways created in the aftermath of the Afghanistan collapse.

The Political Shockwave: Trump Frames the Shooting as Proof of a National Security Crisis

Trump wasted no time framing the shooting as the latest and most devastating example of what he called “the single greatest national security threat facing our nation” — mass migration and inadequate vetting during the years before he returned to the Oval Office.

“This monstrous ambush underscores exactly what I’ve been saying for years,” Trump said. “We cannot survive as a nation if we continue allowing in millions of people whose identities we do not know, whose ideologies we do not know, and whose pasts we cannot verify.”

He singled out the 2021 Afghanistan evacuation effort, which transported more than 76,000 Afghans into the United States in a matter of weeks. At the time, the Biden administration called it one of the largest humanitarian rescue operations in U.S. history. Critics, including Trump and many Republicans, called it a chaotic “airlift lottery” lacking proper security protocols.

Wednesday’s ambush — should Trump’s claim prove accurate — will sharpen that debate.

Biden Refugee Program Under Renewed Scrutiny

Trump’s criticism centered on two Biden-era policies: the mass humanitarian parole authorization used to bring Afghans into the U.S. following Kabul’s fall, and subsequent extensions of legal status through the Afghan Adjustment Act and other administrative actions.

“You had tens of thousands of people from a collapsed government, with no way to verify their identities, and Biden brought them right here,” Trump said. “Now innocent American soldiers are dead because of those decisions.”

Republicans on Capitol Hill echoed Trump within minutes of his address. Several senators called for emergency hearings, while House Homeland Security Committee members demanded immediate access to the suspect’s immigration file.

Former DHS officials from the Biden administration pushed back privately Wednesday night, cautioning that details remain unconfirmed and warning against premature conclusions.

But the political momentum is unmistakable: Trump’s framing has already shaped the narrative.

The DC Ambush: A City on Edge

The attack unfolded in the early hours near Fort Totten Metro station, when two uniformed National Guard members were shot at close range while conducting a routine patrol. Witnesses told local reporters they heard “multiple bursts of gunfire” followed by “screaming and chaos.”

Federal officials have been tight-lipped about the investigation, but early reports indicate that the suspect did not attempt to flee the scene and may have been waiting for the Guardsmen.

The motive has not been publicly identified. Trump, however, did not hesitate to link it to national policy.

“This was preventable,” he said. “It should never have happened on American soil.”

A Nation Bracing for the Political Fallout

The political reverberations are immediate and profound.

Conservatives cast the shooting as the inevitable result of the Biden-era immigration surge. Progressives accuse Trump of weaponizing tragedy and potentially endangering immigrant communities. Moderates are calling for facts before political judgment.

But the spotlight now turns to the Biden-era vetting process — and whether it failed catastrophically.

Trump ended his address with a somber vow: “We will restore safety to our streets, sovereignty to our borders, and sanity to our immigration system. We pray for the families of the heroes we lost today. Their sacrifice will not be in vain.”

As America awaits official confirmation of the suspect’s identity and motives, one conclusion is already clear: this single act of violence has reignited one of the country’s most combustible political debates, setting the stage for a fierce national reckoning over security, immigration, and the legacy of the Afghanistan withdrawal.