Behind Trump’s secret war-zone trip: A Mar-a-Lago escape, a twin Air Force One and a Twitter plan

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — President Donald Trump started his day like so many others at his south Florida resort: a soothing spherical of golf, a number of sharp tweets after which a White Home announcement that he’d be staying in for the evening.

However this specific Wednesday — the night time earlier than Thanksgiving — ended with Trump escaping Mar-a-Lago without the standard presidential motorcade spectacle, boarding a army transport to Washington and then embarking on a 13-hour Air Pressure One flight into the guts of America’s longest warfare.

It was a journey shrouded in additional secrecy than normal even for a presidential trip into a struggle zone. And it merged the made-for-TV drama Trump savors with a army display he loves: the U.S. commander-in-chief on Thanksgiving, lower than a yr from the subsequent election, surrounded by cheering troops in Afghanistan.

For a president who at occasions seems to be at war with his own military leaders, it was a celebration of America’s troops that a small circle of aides planned rigorously for weeks to stop leaks that would scuttle the journey.

“It’s an extended flight,” Trump joked after serving turkey in a cafeteria right here on Thanksgiving night time. “But we like it.”

Trump’s shock three-and-a-half-hour cease marked his second go to to a combat zone and his first journey to Afghanistan, dropping into a dangerous region that cultivated the leaders of the Sept. 11 terrorist assaults.

Final yr, after dealing with criticism for being in office almost two years without visiting troops overseas, Trump had hinted for weeks that he would make a journey soon — “I’m going to a struggle zone,” he bristled when requested whether or not he was afraid to go to. No one was notably stunned when an newbie British plane watcher tracked a Boeing VC-25A, one of the modified Boeing 747s that sometimes serves as Air Drive One, flying over Europe.

This yr, Trump stated nothing publicly earlier than leaving his household, including First Woman Melania Trump, at Mar-a-Lago for his secret go to to Afghanistan.

His employees ensured tweets can be sent from Trump’s Twitter account so Trump-watchers wouldn’t get suspicious that the usually Twitter-obsessed president wasn’t tweeting — like they did last yr.

This time, 12 of the 13 journalists who traveled with Trump — representing information wires, print and broadcast retailers — have been picked up on the roof of a public parking garage near Joint Base Andrews just outdoors Washington and not even informed where they have been traveling till just earlier than they arrived in Afghanistan. Cell telephones, hotspots and some other units emitting a signal have been confiscated from everybody traveling on Air Drive One — sure, even the president himself.

Trump secretly slipped out of Mar-a-Lago earlier that night and departed from an undisclosed airport on a flight a bit of after 7 p.m. Wednesday. The 13th journalist on the Afghanistan journey — a tv correspondent — was aboard that flight and described it in a pool report as “bare-bones, apart from four blue leather-based chairs and a reasonably fancy port-a-potty that had been introduced in for the occasion.”

Trump greeted the crew of that aircraft and even stayed in the cockpit for takeoff, the pool report stated.

The presidential aircraft that Trump had flown to Florida a day earlier remained parked at Palm Seashore International Airport, allowing vacationers to see the modified blue-and-white 747 aircraft recognized around the globe as Air Drive One.

That was a decoy. Secretly, a twin aircraft additionally used as Air Pressure One was hidden inside a cavernous hangar at Joint Base Andrews — as an alternative of being lit up on the tarmac as typical — allowing the president to clandestinely hop on a flight with out the public catching on. He departed just after 10 p.m. for the nonstop flight to Bagram Air Subject, the most important U.S. base in Afghanistan.

Reporters touring with the president discovered their vacation spot from White Home press secretary Stephanie Grisham two hours earlier than their arrival. A digital clock in Air Drive One's press cabin often exhibits occasions in Washington, the aircraft's location at the second and its vacation spot. The time for the destination was left blank until touchdown in Afghanistan.

“It’s a dangerous space and he needs to help the troops,” Grisham stated of the president. “He and Mrs. Trump recognize that there’s a lot of people distant from their families through the holidays and we thought it’d be a pleasant shock.”

Asked how the president was feeling, Grisham responded: “He’s good. He’s excited.”

Air Drive One landed in the dead of night at eight:33 p.m. local time with the shades drawn and inside lights off for safety reasons — just as it had taken off from the Washington area.

Two surveillance blimps might be seen overhead. It was quiet and darkish apart from a smattering of lights. The base smelled of burning wooden and trash.

The president moved via the sprawling base in a 15-vehicle motorcade that included tan Toyotas with soldiers standing within the truck beds holding combat rifles. Trump was adopted into every location by groups of heavily armed combat troops in fatigues, helmets and night-vision goggles.

Journalists have been barred from reporting on the trip until just before their departure from Afghanistan, after briefly getting internet access on the bottom to file. For three hours, they watched the president — in a blue go well with with a purple striped tie — serve turkey in a cafeteria, pose for pictures and deliver remarks in a hangar to 1,500 army personnel.

For as soon as, Trump made no point out of the troubles he’s dealing with at house. He didn’t talk about Home Democrats pushing to question him in the approaching weeks for pressuring Ukraine to opening politically advantageous investigations towards a possible 2020 opponent. He additionally didn’t mention his rift with army leaders, together with a new one simply days earlier than this journey.

He entered to the track that greets Trump at each rally — “God Bless the USA” — and was greeted with loud cheers and chants of, “USA! USA!” About 50 troops in fatigues stood behind him on a makeshift stage with a helicopter parked stage left.

Trump heaped reward on the troops and bragged about his accomplishments, particularly praising the work to destroy the Islamic State and al-Qaeda.

And he had a supporting actor available to praise the president as properly — Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani, who met with Trump on the base earlier as the president announced the resumption of peace negotiations with the Taliban.

Ghani, earlier than a sea of troops, complimented the president for taking out management of the region’s major terrorist groups. “President Trump, individuals speak so much about [Osama] bin Laden — but what you probably did to get rid of [Abu Bakr] al-Baghdadi,” he stated.

“Please thank your households for agreeing to overlook you on this special day and for being right here defending United States safety and our freedom,” stated the Afghan president, who discovered of Trump’s trip just hours before his arrival. “We'll by no means overlook what 9/11 introduced us and we'll never allow the repetition of 9/11 again.”

Trump informed the troops stationed at Bagram that the conflict in Afghanistan "won't be selected the battlefield” but by the individuals of the region with a political answer.

“And we'll continue to work tirelessly until the day once we can deliver each one among you house and protected to your loved ones — and that day is coming," Trump stated.

After a 13-hour journey, and a quick period on the bottom, Trump additionally wistfully advised the troops that his Thanksgiving meal had been reduce brief. “I sat down, I had a stunning piece of turkey and I was all set to go. And I had some mashed potatoes and I had a chew of mashed potatoes, and I never acquired to the turkey, because Gen. [Mark] Milley stated come on over, sir, let’s take some footage. I by no means acquired to my turkey. It’s the primary time at Thanksgiving that I’ve by no means had something referred to as turkey.“

Soon after, Trump hopped again onto his aircraft for an additional long flight back to Mar-a-Lago, the place he often spends Thanksgiving Day.

Article originally revealed on POLITICO Magazine

Src: Behind Trump’s secret war-zone trip: A Mar-a-Lago escape, a twin Air Force One and a Twitter plan
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