U.S. President Donald Trump has shared a country-by-country table on Truth Social purporting to show the share of immigrant households receiving welfare or other government support, listing Bangladeshi households at 54.8%. The post, made on Sunday (4 January, local time), ranks roughly 120 origins and places Bhutan at the top (81.4%), with additional rates including Afghanistan 68.1%, Myanmar 69.2%, Pakistan 40.2%, Nepal 34.8%, China 32.9%, Israel/Palestine 25.9%, Ukraine 42.7%, and “Asia—other/unspecified” 38.8%. India does not appear in the table.
Trump’s post did not provide a methodology in the text of the list, but framed the figures as “welfare/public assistance” use among immigrant families. The release comes amid ongoing U.S. debate over immigrant benefit eligibility, which spans programs such as SNAP, Medicaid, housing assistance and tax credits and varies by immigration status and state policy.
Bangladeshis are a relatively small Asian-origin population in the United States. According to the Pew Research Center’s 2023 estimates cited in the discussion, about 300,000 people identified as Bangladeshi, making them the 12th-largest Asian group at roughly 1% of the U.S. Asian population