White House discusses possible Trump visit to troops in Iraq or Afghanistan

President Trump began telling councilors that he could visit troops in a combat zone for the first time in his presidency, while he was increasingly being watched over for his handling of affairs. and its inability to visit members of services deployed in Afghanistan or Iraq.

Trump has so far refused to visit these combat areas, saying that he did not want to associate with wars that he considers to be failures, according to current and former advisers, who spoke under the guise of the anonymity of private conversations. Current advisers have said that Trump should not travel to a war zone during the Thanksgiving break, as he will be spending at his Mar-a-Lago Golf Club in Florida.

The president has often portrayed himself as a Pentagon champion, citing the strength and size of the military at his election rallies and on Twitter. At the same time, he frequently criticized US military missions and decisions while personally attacking some former military leaders, thereby contributing to complicating relations with the armed forces he commanded.

Although he endorsed US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' requests to strengthen the US military presence in Afghanistan and Syria and retain the footprint in Iraq, Trump is not a supporter of US military operations in Afghanistan. the region.

During meetings on a potential visit, he described the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan as "total shame," according to the advisers. He also talked about long flights and potential security risks, among other reasons he avoided visits to combat zones, they said.

Asked last week about why he did not visit US troops deployed in overseas conflicts, Trump said in an interview with Fox News that a trip was in progress. course.

"I think you will see this happen," Trump said in an interview with Chris Wallace, broadcast Sunday. "There are things that are planned. We do not want to talk about it for security and other reasons. "

The president also repeated his erroneous assertion that he was opposed to the war in Iraq. The Washington Post's fact-finder found that Trump had initially expressed support for the invasion and had only registered public objections more than a year after the war began.

"I think it was a big mistake, it should never have happened," Trump told Wallace.

"But it's about soldiers, sir," replied Wallace.

"You are right," said Trump. "I do not think anyone was more military than me, as president. In terms of funding, in terms of everything I could get, including veterinarians. "

Trump privately spoke of his fears about risks to his own life, according to a former senior white house official who discussed the issue with the president and spoke under the seal of anonymity to be able to speak frankly of his concerns.

"He was never interested in going there," the official said of Trump's visit to a combat zone, citing conversations with the president. "He is afraid of these situations. He's afraid people will want to kill him.

The pressure on Trump to make such a visit has been growing for months. Eliot Cohen, former head of the George W. Bush administration and critic of Trump, regularly raised the issue in public.

"The problem is that US military and women are on the ground in these places," Cohen said in an interview. "They get killed. I think any good leader would like to see something for himself. And they would like to do something for the troops otherwise than using them as props.

Since Trump took office, about 60 US soldiers have died while they were deployed in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, according to Pentagon statistics, which include both "hostile" and "untimely" deaths. -hostiles ".

Plans for a Trump visit are not firm, several advisers said, and the president has only begun to say in recent weeks that this might be necessary. A White House spokesman declined to comment on the presidential visits, citing security concerns.

The behavior of the US President with regard to the army has been the subject of increasing attention in recent weeks. He attacked Sunday retired Admiral William H. McRaven, former US Special Operations Command official, for his role in the capture and assassination of Osama bin Laden, the calling it a supporter of Hillary Clinton and claiming that the leader of al-Qaeda should have been taken earlier to Pakistan. McRaven responded in a statement stating that he had not approved Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

Trump recently skipped a graveyard service marking the end of the First World War in France, due to bad weather. He also did not go to Arlington National Cemetery two days later, on Veterans Day, later expressing a rare regret for missing the opportunity.

"I should have done it," he said in an interview with Fox.

Trump has sent thousands of soldiers to the Mexican border in the expectation of a caravan of Central American migrants in what his critics have called a cascade of pre-elections aimed at strengthening the anti-immigration sentiment within his base . Mattis described the mission as good training and support for the Department of Homeland Security.

The history of presidents visiting active US troops goes back several decades and gives them an idea of ​​what's happening on the ground – while sending a message to the troops that the local government appreciates their personal sacrifices.

During the Korean War, Dwight D. Eisenhower's commitment to settle in Korea helped him to be elected president of Adlai Stevenson. Eisenhower then made a visit in 1952.

Lyndon B. Johnson met soldiers at Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam in 1966, telling them that he had come only to say how proud he was of what they were doing and how they were doing it. were doing. He also visited the forces there next year.

George HW Bush spent Thanksgiving with US troops in Saudi Arabia during the Desert Shield in 1990 and the New Year in Somalia in 1993. His successor, Bill Clinton, visited troops in Bosnia in 1996 and spent Thanksgiving in Kosovo in 1999.

George W. Bush paid a surprise visit to Thanksgiving to troops in Iraq a few months after the 2003 invasion and made himself three more times in the country after his presidency. At the time, the United States military footprint in the country was in the process of being established, eventually reaching about 170,000 troops in Iraq, at the height of the 2007 buildup.

Mark Hertling, a retired three-star general, helped organize the surprise visit in 2003.

About six officers knew that Bush would arrive, he said, recounting how the president flew to the international airport in the early hours of the morning and remained hidden until the troops were in a big way. refectory. Bush then served the turkey and received resounding applause.

"Troops on the ground need to know that their efforts are not in vain," said Hertling. "This shows [that] the government and the people have their backs. "

The presence of troops in Afghanistan increased during the first half of the Obama administration, reaching a peak of about 100,000 people in 2011. President Barack Obama has visited the country in Four times, including the last one in 2014, and went to Iraq soon after his first inauguration, meets each time with US forces. Previously, he had visited the combat zones of both countries as an American senator.

Trump's advisers say his lack of visit does not represent a lack of interest or disrespect for the military. He admires military personalities in his administration, according to his advisers: General Mark Milley, Chief of Staff of the Army, and retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, a former White House advisor who now works for Vice President Pence.

The president was persuaded to sign a spending bill that he did not like much from his aides who brought him lists of military equipment that the money would buy, even for aircraft and specific vessels, announced the former and current assistants of the White House.

Trump frequently praises the power of the US military at its political rallies, having approved this year a $ 716 billion budget for the Pentagon, which included the largest basic budget in adjusted terms since the Second World War World.

Former and former associates said Trump was dark in his military decisions and worried about the deaths of soldiers under his watch. They also note that Trump visited national military bases and troops overseas, such as during a stopover in Japan last fall, while bringing military visitors to the Oval Office.

"I have never heard of any disrespect for the military in private," said a former senior administration official. "Whenever you go anywhere with him in the army, he is extremely popular."

According to his former and former assistants, Trump would have been shaken after visiting Dover Air Force Base shortly after his inauguration to receive the remains of a Navy SEAL killed in Yemen, his first trip to meet a grieving family. He has not come back since.

The president, who attacked a Gold Star family during the election campaign in 2016, showed little interest in some of the minutiae of the military and routinely complains of headaches related to his complications around the world. said assistants.

For most of Trump's term, a trip to Iraq or Afghanistan would have led to real security problems and political complications, US officials said.

Iraq was heading for elections during its first year in power, and a Trump visit at the time of Trump's controversial travel ban to Muslim-majority countries would have further complicating the efforts of US-backed Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to ensure re-election in May.

In Afghanistan, the security situation has deteriorated. In September 2017, Mattis was the target of an unsuccessful rocket attack at Kabul Airport. A month later, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made a secret visit to Afghanistan without leaving Bagram Air Base, partly for security reasons.

Nevertheless, if the president wanted to visit the US troops deployed in one of the countries, the US military authorities would find a way to organize the trip as in the past, according to officials familiar with the matter. He could easily stop at Bagram for a few hours like Tillerson, they said.

Hertling said he remembered a visit by the late Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) to Iraq in the worst days of the conflict and that he wanted to travel to Mosul despite fierce fighting. The soldiers have laundered.

"We wanted to take it anywhere except Mosul," Hertling said. "He discovered it and wanted to go there. So we went. "

Philip Rucker contributed to this report.