What did Trump mean when he said he would pause migration from all ‘third world countries’?

United States President Donald Trump on Thursday said that he and his administration would ‘permanently pause migration from all Third World countries.’

On a post on Truth Social, he said that he was doing it to "allow the U.S system to fully recover and terminate all of Biden's illegal admissions."

End all Federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens of our Country, denaturalise migrants who undermine domestic tranquillity, and deport any Foreign National who is a public charge, security risk, or incompatible with Western Civilisation. “

The US president made the comments following the death of a National Guard member on Thursday after being shot near the White House in an ambush that investigators say was carried out by an Afghan national.

It is unclear what Trump meant by ‘third world countries,’ since it is an outdated term that originated during the Cold War to describe nations that were neither allied nor neutral. First World countries referred to nations that were allied to the US, and Second World referred to countries that stood with the USSR. India was a ‘third-world country’ during the war.

The term is now often misleadingly used to describe developing countries or to compare social and economic progress.

While there is no list of official ‘third world’ countries, the United Nations does have a classification of developed nations to least developed nations or LDCs.

The list is based on the per capita income, Human assets index, and the economic and environmental vulnerability. As of now, there are a total of 44 counties classified as LDCs.

Afghanistan ranks number one on the list.

To make it out of the list, a country has to reach the thresholds in two out of the three criteria.