How Trump’s Surprise Thanksgiving to Afghanistan Was Kept Under Wraps

President Trump visited Afghanistan to thank troops for their service to the country and help serve Thanksgiving dinner. This visit required extreme security measures to ensure safety and that the news didn’t leak.

Many details of the security measures are a secret, but Trump flew out of “an undisclosed airport in Florida on a small, also undisclosed, plane Wednesday evening,” said Fox News. Phones of all onboard, including senior White House officials, were taken as part of the security measures. From Joint Base Andrews, the president switched to Air Force One which was hidden in a hangar. Fox News added that “it took off from JBA with all interior lights off and the windows drawn.”

The plane landed in Afghanistan on a pitch-black runway. According to White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham, only a tight circle of White House officials knew about the trip. The White House scheduled tweets to be sent out using the president’s Twitter account when he did not have access to the internet. “It’s a dangerous area and he wants to support the troops,” Grisham said.

As Trump’s trip was a surprise, Newsweek had to overhaul an article saying that the president “would spend the day tweeting and playing golf.”

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani met with President Trump but was only notified by the White House a few hours earlier due to security concerns.