After criticism, Trump says he’ll visit troops at war
No timetable or plans given, but he vows a trip
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump frequently credits himself with accomplishing more for the military and veterans than any other president in recent memory. But he has yet to embark on what has long been a traditional presidential pilgrimage important to the military: a visit to troops deployed in a war zone.
As he departed Tuesday for Florida to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday at his private club in Palm Beach, Trump said he’d soon correct the oversight.
“I’m going to a war zone,” he said in response to a reporter’s question about his support for the troops. He did not say when he would be making the trip or to which conflict area he would be going. An official said a White House team recently returned from beginning to plan for a visit.
The omission is one of a long list of norm-breaking moves that underscore the president’s increasingly fraught relationship with the military, which has celebrated Trump’s investments in defense spending but cringed at what some see as efforts to politicize their service.
Just this week, Trump leveled criticism against the storied commander of the 2011 mission that killed alQaida leader Osama bin Laden, retired Adm. William McRaven. “Wouldn’t it have been nice if we got Osama bin Laden a lot sooner than that, wouldn’t it have been nice,” Trump said.
The latest controversy followed a pattern of concerns raised by former senior military officers about Trump’s grasp of the military’s role, and it comes as White House aides and defense officials have raised alarm about what they view as the president’s disinterest in briefings about troop deployments overseas.
Shortly after taking office, Trump appeared to try to deflect responsibility for the death of a servicemember in a failed operation in Yemen, saying planning for the mission began under his predecessor and was backed by senior military commanders.
Trump won the White House on a platform of ending U.S. military commitments abroad, but he’s been bedeviled by many of the same challenges as his predecessors. More American troops are now deployed in conflict zones than when he took office.
Aides have suggested that Trump is wary of traveling to conflict zones where he doesn’t fully support the mission. Trump begrudgingly backed a surge of troops in Afghanistan last year and boosted U.S. deployments in Iraq, Syria and Africa to counter the Islamic State and other extremist groups.
Trump also drew criticism for his decision not to visit Arlington National Cemetery to mark Veterans Day, following his trip to Europe. He said later he “should have” visited the cemetery but was too busy with official business. His public schedule that day listed no events.