To mark Thanksgiving 2019, President Trump made an unannounced visit to U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan, his first visit to the country, the Associated Press reported.
With just a few aides along for the trip, including National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham, and acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney in tow, but not the First Lady, the president toured Bagram Air Field, served turkey to the troops in the mess hall, took some pictures, and gave a short address.
Few outside Afghanistan were even aware of the president’s visit until it was almost over.
As Kaitlan Collins of CNN reported , great lengths were taken to keep the president’s visit under wraps, including a change of planes inside a hangar in Washington rather than on the tarmac, confiscation of even senior aides’ phones, and presidential tweets scheduled to go out while Air Force One was in the air and no internet access would be possible.
Reporters on the trip were under strict instructions to maintain secrecy about the visit for security purposes.
In addition to dining with the troops, President Trump also met with Afghan President Ahraf Ghani and announced that peace talks with the Taliban had resumed.
Talks had been called off in September in the wake of an attack in Kabul that claimed 12 lives, including a U.S. soldier, that the Taliban claimed credit for.
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“We’re meeting with them,” he said, according to AP . “And we’re saying it has to be a ceasefire. And they don’t want to do a ceasefire, but now they do want to do a ceasefire, I believe…we’ll see what happens.”
A matter of hours after arriving, Trump was back in the air.
“It’s a dangerous area and he wants to support the troops,” Grisham told reporters. “He and Mrs. Trump recognize that there’s a lot of people who are away from their families during the holidays and we thought it’d be a nice surprise.”
h/t: Associated Press , CNN
