HOW TRUMP’S AFGHANISTAN TRIP WAS KEPT UNDER WRAPS

BAGRAM, AFGHANISTAN— Notorious for leaks and chastened by previous security lapses, the White House went to unusual lengths to keep President Donald Trump’s Thanksgiving trip to Afghanistan under wraps, devising a cover story for his movements that included posting scripted tweets while he was in the air, officials said.

On Thursday, Trump dropped in unannounced on troops at Afghanistan’s Bagram military air base in his first trip to the country and only his second to a war zone during his presidency.

He served soldiers a turkey dinner and posed for selfies.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the 33-hour roundtrip, which White House spokesperson Stephanie Grisham said had been weeks in the making, was the administration’s success in keeping it secret.

The White House informed only a tight circle of officials about the trip.

On Tuesday, Trump traveled to his Mar-a-lago resort in Florida as scheduled, followed by the regular caravan of reporters.

Journalists waited for him to emerge for a scheduled Thursday conference call with the troops only to learn that he had already flown the 13,400 km to Afghanistan to visit them in person.

Hours before, a second group of reporters secretly gathered at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington. Inside the base, all smartphones and any devices that could send a signal were confiscated and not returned until at least two hours after Trump’s arrival at Bagram.

Throughout the 13-hour flight, nobody on board Air Force One had access to their phones, including White House staff, Grisham said. The cabin lights were mostly switched off and window blinds stayed shut.

Grisham said the White House ensured continuity in the president’s Twitter account, which posted happy Thanksgiving tweets as he was in the air, including one thanking the military.

“We just had a nice Thanksgiving dinner,” Trump said amid chants of “U-S-A.” He added, “I thought I was going to be doing it someplace else.”