By Maureen Mackey | November 28, 2019
In a gesture of generosity and gratitude, President Donald Trump on Thursday made an unannounced trip to Afghanistan to visit and spend time with American troops on Thanksgiving Day.
Related: Thankful for Our Country and All Those Who Created It [1]
The trip was the president’s first to the country.
The visit occurred almost a year after Trump made a surprise visit to our troops stationed in Iraq — his first to a combat zone since he took office.
Some 13,000 or so U.S. personnel are still stationed in Afghanistan to train, advise and assist local forces under a NATO mission and to conduct counterterrorism operations, according to reports.
Trump said this past summer that he aimed to reduce that number. [2]
Related: Five Powerful Statements of Thanksgiving This Year [3]
The top U.S. general in Afghanistan said last month the total number of troops in the country had decreased by around 2,000 people, NBC News [4] noted.
See these tweets about President’s Trump surprise trip on Thursday — and share your own thoughts.
Thank you @POTUS [5] @realDonaldTrump [6] for taking your Thanksgiving Day to be with the troops in Afghanistan. I know this means a lot not only to them, but to all freedom loving people in that part of the world.https://t.co/kpZF9DspFa [7]
— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) November 28, 2019 [8]
https://twitter.com/charliekirk11/status/1200132740311445505
President Trump made an unannounced Thanksgiving visit to U.S. troops in Afghanistan, his first trip to the country since becoming president and a week after a prisoner swap between Washington and Kabul that raised hopes for a revival of peace talks https://t.co/EbUCGTjXxp [9] pic.twitter.com/wxF7jCExVS [10]
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 28, 2019 [11]
This article has been updated with a new tweet.
This piece originally appeared in LifeZette [12] and is used by permission.
Read more at LifeZette.com:
Grateful This Thanksgiving for the ‘Emergency’ Blessings of Strangers [13]
Chemical Explosion at Texas Refinery: ‘Too Close for Comfort’ [14]