Trump's visit to Afghanistan was so secret the White House sent generic Thanksgiving tweets from his account to avoid questions about why he didn't post for 13 hours
by Tom Porter
- When President Donald Trump travelled to Afghanistan to visit US troops on the eve of Thanksgiving, the White House went to extraordinary lengths to keep the trip secret.
- The White House arranged for generic Thanksgiving tweets to be sent from the president’s account to avoid suspicion if his account were to fall silent during the 13-hour flight on Air Force One.
- In Afghanistan, Trump served Thanksgiving meals to troops at Bagram Airfield, the largest US base in the country.
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White House staffers sent generic Thanksgiving tweets from President Donald Trump’s Twitter account to avoid suspicion had his account been silent as he made a secret trip to visit US troops in Afghanistan.
There was no forward announcement of the trip, which Trump for security reasons made in a blacked-out plane on Thanksgiving eve, with White House staff members going to extraordinary lengths to shroud the trip in secrecy.
When Trump visited troops in Iraq at Christmas last year, close watchers of the president became suspicious when the usually Twitter-obsessed president fell silent for several hours.
So to avoid suspicion this time, staffers sent out generic Thanksgiving messages from the president’s account as he made the 13-hour journey to Kabul, the White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, confirmed to The New York Times.
Trump started Wednesday with a round of golf at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, with the White House announcing that he would be spending the evening there.
But soon after Trump instead boarded Air Force One for the 7 p.m. flight to Afghanistan, where US troops have been stationed since 2002.
Even reporters who travelled with the president on the journey were told the destination only two hours before their arrival,Politico reported.
“It’s a dangerous area and he wants to support the troops,” Grisham told Politico. “He and Mrs. Trump recognise that there’s a lot of people far away from their families during the holidays, and we thought it’d be a nice surprise.”
During the trip to Bagram Airfield, Trump served Turkey to US soldiers, met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, and posed for pictures with service members.