“He Went Cuckoo”: Trump Blames Mental Shift After Vetted Asylum Seeker Accused in National Guard Shooting
President Donald Trump addressed the fatal shooting of a National Guard member on Thursday, attributing the violence to the suspect having “went cuckoo” despite previously passing U.S. vetting. The accused, 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is alleged to have fatally shot 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom and critically wounded 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe in a targeted attack just blocks from the White House. According to multiple sources, Lakanwal was vetted by the CIA in Afghanistan and was granted final asylum approval during the Trump administration. When questioned on how such an attack could occur post-vetting, Trump stated, “I mean, he went nuts, and that happens. It happens too often with these people,” asserting that the individual’s mental state shifted after his entry into the country.
In response to the incident, Trump announced a sweeping new immigration directive. Hours after his comments, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joseph B. Edlow revealed that, at Trump’s direction, the agency would launch a “full scale, rigorous reexamination” of every green card issued to immigrants from 19 nations deemed “high-risk.” This list includes Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia, Venezuela, and several other countries. Trump emphasized the challenges of the asylum system, noting “it’s very hard to get them out… But we’re going to be getting them all out now,” signaling a major policy shift aimed at reviewing the status of thousands of immigrants already in the United States.
