Trump administration threatens to expand travel ban to 30 countries

Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News on Dec 2, 2025

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President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to expand its current travel ban to around 30 countries, according to multiple reports.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem posted an anti-immigrant screed on social media Monday, threatening a ban on “every damn country” that was “flooding” the U.S. with immigrants.

Noem then spoke with Trump and recommended an additional 11 to 13 countries to bar from the U.S., according to CNN. Back in June, the administration already banned travel from 19 countries.

Trump, Noem and others in the Republican administration increased their virulently anti-immigrant comments following the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., the day before Thanksgiving.

The suspected gunman, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is an Afghan national who worked alongside U.S. troops during the 20-year war in Afghanistan before fleeing to the U.S. in 2021 as the Taliban took over.

Lakanwal was granted asylum in April 2025. Noem and community members where he’d been living in Bellingham, Wash., said his mental health deteriorated after his arrival in the U.S.

But that hasn’t stopped Trump and his allies from blaming immigrants for a whole host of problems in the U.S., even though multiple studies have shown for years that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born U.S. citizens.

Afghanistan was already on the original travel ban list that went into effect in June, along with Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

Noem did not specifically name which countries she recommended adding to the ban list. After the D.C. shooting, Trump posted about a ban on immigrants from “third world” countries.