[cnn.com]
(CNN)On Thanksgiving eve, President Donald Trump slipped unnoticed out of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on his way to a bare-bones military plane with just a handful of top aides.

His departure was concealed even from White House staff and military personnel who were at Mar-a-Lago to set up a video conference call with troops for Thursday afternoon -- and who were allowed to proceed to avoid raising any suspicion that Trump was anywhere but at the resort, according to a person familiar with the plans.
Sixteen hours later, he touched down for the first time in Afghanistan, on just his second visit to a war zone as President after a similar Christmas Eve trip last year to Iraq.

[o.canada.com]

No phones, scripted tweets: Trump's Afghanistan trip was kept under wraps
REUTERS Updated: November 29, 2019

President Donald Trump serves Thanksgiving dinner to U.S. troops at Bagram Air Field during a surprise visit on November 28, 2019 in Afghanistan. (OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)

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BAGRAM AIRFIELD — 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, administration 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, before telling reporters that the United States and Taliban hoped to resume peace talks.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the 33-hour roundtrip, which White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said had been weeks in the making, was the administration’s success in keeping it secret until shortly before the president left Afghanistan to return home.