Trump 44: Finally on Trial

[fraurosena]

23 minutes ago, thoughtful said:

He looks and sounds more like Hitler and Mussolini every day.

What's even more alarming is that he's acting more like them too.

But never forget, neither Hitler, or Mussolini, or Trump, could have done/do what they did/are, without enablers. They are the most dangerous people in all of this. Without enablers, would be dictators would never amount to more than blustering demagogues.

[fraurosena]

So much wishful thinking here. So much narcissism. So much delusion. Gag.

 

[Becky]

Holey socks, I think I am going to lose my lunch!  ?  What the heck?  

[Audrey2]

8 hours ago, smittykins said:

At rally, Trump vows to supporters “no name change for Thanksgiving.”

 

  Reveal hidden contents

President Trump claimed at his rally Tuesday night that some people want to rename Thanksgiving, telling supporters "we're not changing it."

"You know, some people want to change the name Thanksgiving," Trump told the crowd in Sunrise, Fla., without offering specifics. “They don’t want to use the term 'Thanksgiving.'”

“And that was true also with Christmas, but now everybody’s using Christmas again. Remember I said that?” he continued, echoing a common refrain from past rallies.

Listen, Bozo.  No one is forcing you to “change” the name, but if others don’t want to celebrate it, or choose to call it something else due to its effect on their culture, that’s NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS.

Do you want to talk about a war on Thanksgiving, Donnie? I believe there's been a war against Thanksgiving for a few years now but it has nothing to do with telling people to source their food differently or to meet in the middle. The war I see against Thanksgiving is in the stores which used to open early in the morning on Black Friday which are now opening for shopping in late afternoon on Thanksgiving. I do realize that not everyone spends Thanksgiving with their family- I will be spending it alone this year, but I like the idea of two days a year that most businesses are closed, and turning Thanksgiving into another shopping day has essentially eliminated Thanksgiving for many of their workers.

I will also admit that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and I like the idea of many people who work assigned shifts getting that day off. I know that we will always have to have policemen, firefighters, hospital staff, and nursing home staff working, but I think we can all go one more day without getting something new from Target or Best Buy or JCPenney.

Edited November 27, 2019 by Audrey2

[fraurosena]

Trump Tax Records Reveal New Inconsistencies — This Time for Trump Tower

Quote

Donald Trump’s business reported conflicting information about a key metric to New York City property tax officials and a lender who arranged financing for his signature building, Trump Tower in Manhattan, according to tax and loan documents obtained by ProPublica. The findings add a third major Trump property to two for which ProPublica revealed similar discrepancies last month.

In the latest case, the occupancy rate of the Trump Tower’s commercial space was listed, over three consecutive years, as 11, 16 and 16 percentage points higher in filings to a lender than in reports to city tax officials, records show.

For example, as of December 2011 and June 2012, respectively, Trump’s business told the lender that 99% and 98.7% of the tower’s commercial space was occupied, according to a prospectus for the loan. The figures were taken from “borrower financials,” the prospectus stated.

In tax filings, however, Trump’s business said the building’s occupancy was 83% in January 2012 and the same a year later. The 16 percentage point gap between the loan and tax filings is a “very significant difference,” said Susan Mancuso, an attorney who specializes in New York property tax.

A spokesperson for the Trump Organization said that “comparing the various reports is comparing apples to oranges” because reporting requirements differ.

Trump had much to gain by showing a high occupancy rate to lenders in 2012: He refinanced his share of Trump Tower that year and obtained a $100 million loan on favorable terms.

The vast majority of the gap between occupancy figures could be explained by diverging reports on how much space the Trump Organization used in Trump Tower. In loan documents, the company said it and its affiliates occupied 74,900 square feet in mid-2012, or 31% of the building. But tax reports from the January before and after listed the company and related parties as occupying 41,600 square feet — or about 18% of the tower.

“I cannot give you an explanation,” said Kevin Riordan, a financing expert, former accountant and real estate professor at Montclair State University who reviewed the tax and loan records for Trump Tower at ProPublica’s request.

More than a dozen tax and finance experts, presented with ProPublica’s earlier findings, also said they could not decipher a reason for the differences. As with Trump Tower, the discrepancies made the two properties — a skyscraper located at 40 Wall Street and the Trump International Hotel and Tower near Columbus Circle — appear more profitable to the lender and less so to property tax officials.

Those discrepancies were “versions of fraud,” according to Nancy Wallace, a professor of finance and real estate at the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley. The penalties for false filings can include fines or criminal charges.

The diverging numbers match a pattern described by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, in congressional testimony this year. Cohen said Trump at times inflated assets’ value in documents submitted to lenders in an effort to secure loans. In reports to tax officials, Cohen testified, Trump would lower the value to reduce what he owed.

The focus on Trump’s business and personal financial records has been particularly intense of late. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. has subpoenaed a wide array of Trump financial records to investigate claims that the Trump Organization falsified records of hush-money payments to pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels, who said she and Trump had a sexual encounter. (He has denied the affair.)

Congressional lawmakers are seeking Trump’s personal tax returns, as well as other financial information, as part of their investigation into potential foreign influence on the presidency. Two federal courts have affirmed lawmakers’ right to enforce the subpoenas, and Trump has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

ProPublica used New York’s Freedom of Information Law to obtain property tax filings for four of Trump’s Manhattan buildings, including Trump Tower. The income and expense statements Trump filed when repeatedly appealing the city’s valuation of his property are public under the law. We then compared information in the tax reports to loan data made public when Trump’s debt became part of pools of loans sold publicly as bonds known as commercial mortgage-backed securities.

Information in tax and loan filings can differ for legitimate reasons, experts said. A small portion of the occupancy gap at Trump Tower did appear to have an explanation: About 2.5 percentage points of the discrepancy in 2012 consisted of an instance where the Trump Organization treated newly leased, but still empty, space as full in its loan documents (which Trump’s lender disclosed) but not in tax documents.

The Trump Organization refinanced Trump Tower in 2012, replacing its existing $27 million in debt with a loan for $100 million. That allowed Trump to extract about $68 million in cash. The same institution that handled the refinancing, Ladder Capital, refinanced 40 Wall Street and the Columbus Circle property a few years later.

Occupancy, along with cash flow, is a factor used by lenders and ratings agencies to assess the riskiness of a loan. Trump secured relatively favorable terms: an interest-only loan that allowed him to avoid paying monthly principal. The Trump Tower loan received coveted AAA and Aaa ratings, respectively, from credit agencies Fitch and Moody’s. (The company has continued making payments.)

When it comes to reporting property taxes in New York City, there’s a potential incentive for owners to minimize how much space they’re renting to themselves. The city’s Tax Commission, which handles property tax appeals, tends to treat owner-occupied space as if it’s being rented at full market price, which increases the value the tax commission assigns to the building, and thus increases the tax bill. But the commission often won’t assign such income to vacant space, said Mancuso, the New York property tax expert.

The Trump Tower filings showed smaller discrepancies when it came to income. (New York City assessors consider income when calculating the taxable value of commercial properties, making New York property tax filings resemble those of income taxes more than property tax filings typically do in other parts of the country.)

Trump Tower, however, fell shy of expectations for profit set out by underwriters working for Ladder Capital during the refinancing, tax and loan records show. They had pegged net operating income at roughly $20.4 million a year. In the years after the loan was made, the building hasn’t come close.

New York City real estate observers have suggested that the tight security needed at the tower because of the presidency has cut into Trump’s ability to make money from the building. This year, China’s biggest bank, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, made plans to reduce its space in Trump Tower when its lease ran out, according to Bloomberg News.

The financial institution that arranged the Trump Tower refinancing, Ladder Capital, is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that reports more than $6 billion in assets. It has a close Trump connection: Jack Weisselberg, an executive in loan origination, is the son of the Trump Organization’s longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg. Allen Weisselberg is under investigation by the Manhattan DA for his role in the Daniels payments.

Ladder Capital declined to comment.

 

[fraurosena]

Oops.

Will Trump and his trumplicans ignore the evidence and keep on peddling this nonsense, or will they think up an alternative conspiracy theory to propagate? ?

[47of74]

5 hours ago, fraurosena said:

So much wishful thinking here. So much narcissism. So much delusion. Gag.

 

Yeah in your dreams fuck face.

How much coke is fuck face doing to think he looks like that?

[JMarie]

9 hours ago, smittykins said:

At rally, Trump vows to supporters “no name change for Thanksgiving.”

 

  Hide contents

President Trump claimed at his rally Tuesday night that some people want to rename Thanksgiving, telling supporters "we're not changing it."

"You know, some people want to change the name Thanksgiving," Trump told the crowd in Sunrise, Fla., without offering specifics. “They don’t want to use the term 'Thanksgiving.'”

“And that was true also with Christmas, but now everybody’s using Christmas again. Remember I said that?” he continued, echoing a common refrain from past rallies.

Listen, Bozo.  No one is forcing you to “change” the name, but if others don’t want to celebrate it, or choose to call it something else due to its effect on their culture, that’s NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS.

Who? Who are these people that want to rename Thanksgiving? I want actual names, addresses, and cell phone numbers.

5 hours ago, fraurosena said:

So much wishful thinking here. So much narcissism. So much delusion. Gag.

 

I really hope this isn't the embassy portrait he was squawking about. You know, the one Yovanovitch "refused" to exhibit.

[GreyhoundFan]

"China hopes Trump will be reelected: He’s ‘easy to read’"

Spoiler

BEIJING — President Trump has called out China for unfair trading practices, labeled the country a “threat to the world” and described leader Xi Jinping as an enemy.

Yet he recently congratulated the Communist Party on 70 years in power — which it marked with a military display aimed at the United States — and said his relationship with Xi is “very amazing” despite their “little spat” over trade.

Though the U.S.-China relationship has been rocky over the past 18 months, many in China’s halls of power hope that the American leader will win a second term next year. For although he may seem unpredictable, Chinese officials are betting that Trump’s transactional approach to politics might be preferable to a more principle-driven president, whether Democrat or Republican.

“Trump is a businessman. We can just pay him money and the problems will be solved,” said a politically connected person in Beijing, speaking on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly about sensitive international issues. “As long as we have money, we can buy him. That’s the reason why we prefer him to Democrats.”

Trump’s unfiltered tweets help China in negotiations because he is “easy to read,” said Long Yongtu, a former vice minister of foreign trade and China’s point man during its accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001, at a conference in Shenzhen this month. “We want Trump to be reelected; we would be glad to see that happen.”

Another influential voice in Beijing, Tsinghua University international relations professor Yan Xuetong, wrote recently that, thanks to Trump, China was facing “the best strategic opportunity” since the Cold War.

“Trump has undermined the U.S.-led alliance system, which has improved China's international environment,” Yan said in Southern Review.

Governments around the world, from allies such as Australia and South Korea to adversaries like Iran and North Korea, have had to adjust to Trump’s idiosyncratic style.

But the Chinese were among the most shocked by the U.S. leader’s approach. When Trump took office, Communist Party officials thought that he was only interested in a quick, tweetable victory, analysts have said. But the party underestimated Trump’s resolve to both rebalance the trading relationship and make Beijing a public enemy among U.S. voters. Chinese leaders also acknowledge underestimating the extent to which China’s behavior has become a bipartisan concern in Washington, according to people who have met with senior officials.

Almost two years into the trade war and three years into his administration, Chinese officials have learned the art of Trump’s dealmaking.

“Trump isn’t ideologically opposed to China. He doesn’t go on about human rights and Xinjiang and the South China Sea,” the Beijing insider said, referring to China’s contested maritime claims and to its northwestern region where authorities have detained a million Muslims.

A Democratic president would almost certainly take a more wide-ranging approach to China. The candidates struck a strident tone in the debate last week, with several vowing to increase pressure on China over its human rights abuses in Xinjiang and the erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong.

Trump does not seem concerned about those issues, said Elizabeth Economy, director for Asia studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, the free and open Indo-Pacific, all of these are issues that President Trump does not typically address,” Economy said. “If I’m correct in my assumption that he doesn’t care about these issues, because he never talks about them, then he will be more willing to just trade them out in discussions with the Chinese.”

As if to prove that point, Trump declared Friday that he would be willing to veto legislation designed to support pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong — despite its near-unanimous support in the House and Senate — to pave the way for a trade deal with China.

None of this means that China will make the next year easy for Trump.

There has been no tangible progress on the “phase one” trade deal that the American leader had hoped to sign this month.

In October, Trump said the two sides were on the brink of “a very substantial” agreement under which China would double its annual purchases of U.S. farm goods to more than $40 billion. But he said last week that China was not “stepping up to the level that I want.”

Many analysts expect a “phase one” deal to be reached, not least because many of the provisions are in China’s interest. A virus has decimated the pig population in China, the world’s largest consumer of pork, spurring officials to look abroad and to other meats to satisfy demand. And the “phase one” deal looks a lot like the deal on the table in April — minus the parts that irritated Beijing.

Still, China’s leaders have no incentive to proceed quickly, said Paul Haenle, an Asia adviser in the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama who is now at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing. “Why would we give the U.S. a comprehensive deal going into an election year?” Haenle said, posing the question Beijing officials are asking themselves. “If we give you a lot now and in 2020, then what will we have to give Trump in his second term?”

The trade dispute will become more difficult for Beijing if and when talks proceed to phases two and three. That’s when negotiators would have to discuss structural issues that have long bothered the United States, such as China’s practice of forcing foreign investors to hand over their technology, intellectual property theft, and subsidies for state-owned companies.

“So there’s a bit of a risk at this point, especially as we head into the 2020 election year, that the Trump administration will kind of settle for a superficial deal to claim a win,” said Alison Szalwinski, vice president of research at the National Bureau of Asian Research. “And that could take the wind out of the sails of talking about longer-term issues in the bilateral relationship.”

That should especially concern Congress, where there are some 25 different bills and resolutions related to China.

Congress and some parts of government, like the Defense and State departments, have had a relatively free hand to criticize China on issues such as Xinjiang and expansionism in the South China Sea, as long as they don’t conflict with Trump’s priorities, said Economy. “But if the trade negotiations progress and the president at some point decides to declare victory, the window for these types of actions will close,” she said.

For while Trump is thinking about four more years, Xi is thinking about many more than that. The 66-year-old has abolished term limits, effectively enabling him to continue leading China for the rest of his life.

That means Xi can agree to a “phase one” deal to play for time without having to offer more.

“If he retreats for eight, nine months to a year, it’s not a big deal for him, because I think he sees himself as the leader of China for the next 10 or 20 years, if not longer,” said Victor Shih, a China expert at the University of California at San Diego. “So he’s definitely playing a much longer game than the president of the United States right now.”

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Two words: oh, please:

 

 

[47of74]

 

[47of74]

Fixed It Part 2

And I apologize for the nightmare fuel too.

Edited November 28, 2019 by 47of74

[Audrey2]

As disturbing as both the pictures above are, since Trump is complaining that he wants pictures of himself in all embassies I think one of these two would be an interesting choice.

[47of74]

8 minutes ago, Audrey2 said:

As disturbing as both the pictures above are, since Trump is complaining that he wants pictures of himself in all embassies I think one of these two would be an interesting choice.

And the ambassador could tell fuck face when he complains that: (a) he wanted the a picture of himself in the embassy; and (b) the host governments really ❤️ those photos of him in the embassy and it's improving relations between the US and the host countries. 

[Audrey2]

13 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

And the ambassador could tell fuck face when he complains that: (a) he wanted the a picture of himself in the embassy; and (b) the host governments really ❤️ those photos of him in the embassy and it's improving relations between the US and the host countries. 

(C) And, in both of them, he looks as athletic and manly as Vladimir Putin does shirtless, riding a horse. 

Edited November 28, 2019 by Audrey2

[GreyhoundFan]

Those fixed photos also serve an important purpose, as diet aids! I know I became nauseous looking at them.

[laPapessaGiovanna]

I can't convince myself that that tweet is real. It takes the WTF? factor to unimaginable levels. I feel like we live inside Idiocracy and I so much hope tho wake up tomorrow and find out it was "just" The Truman Show.

[laPapessaGiovanna]

I was thinking that if Obama got a Peace Nobel Prize basically just for not being warmonger Bush, the next sane president should have a Nobel in every category just for not being a tRump level ignoramus.

[formergothardite]

1 hour ago, laPapessaGiovanna said:

I can't convince myself that that tweet is real. It takes the WTF? factor to unimaginable levels. I feel like we live inside Idiocracy and I so much hope tho wake up tomorrow and find out it was "just" The Truman Show.

I really can never wrap my mind around this being for real our president. This whole things just seems like a bad joke. How is this happening?! 

[AliceInFundyland]

3 hours ago, formergothardite said:

I really can never wrap my mind around this being for real our president. This whole things just seems like a bad joke. How is this happening?! 

Saw this in new content and popped over.

The entire last three years I've had a hard time saying President T----

At the same time I have an aversion to using insulting nicknames for people in elected office. I can't. Doesn't make me feel better. Beyond 'that fucking asshole' I really can't do it.

So I've avoided referring to him directly as much as possible.

Let's hope it will end soon.

[apple1]

7 minutes ago, AliceInFundyland said:

The entire last three years I've had a hard time saying President T----

At the same time I have an aversion to using insulting nicknames for people in elected office. I can't. Doesn't make me feel better. Beyond 'that fucking asshole' I really can't do it.

So I've avoided referring to him directly as much as possible.

Let's hope it will end soon.

Pretty much my thoughts, also.

[Dandruff]

It's Thanksgiving afternoon.  I imagine a certain someone is sitting at the table, wondering how well his goose upcoming meal has been cooked.

[GreyhoundFan]

This is a surprise: "Trump makes surprise visit to U.S. troops in Afghanistan"

Spoiler

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan — President Trump visited Afghanistan for the first time on Thursday, delivering Thanksgiving greetings to U.S. troops deployed here in America’s longest-running war and announcing he had resumed peace negotiations with the Taliban.

Making an unannounced trip, Trump touched down at 8:30 p.m. local time at Bagram air base — the primary hub for U.S. air operations located outside the Afghan capital of Kabul — after secretly departing Florida in the dark of night.

Trump has long wanted to draw down forces in Afghanistan and he said during a meeting here with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani that he had restarted peace talks with the Taliban that he broke off almost three months ago, and was hopeful of brokering an accord.

“The Taliban wants to make a deal and we’re meeting with them and we’re saying it has to be a ceasefire and they didn’t want to do a ceasefire, and now they do want to do a ceasefire,” Trump said. “I believe it’ll probably work out that way.”

The Trump administration appeared to be on the brink of striking a deal to jump-start the peace process in September, when the president extended and then canceled an invitation for Taliban representatives to Camp David to cement an agreement to reduce U.S. forces.

This is Trump’s second visit to a combat zone; he visited troops in Iraq the day after Christmas in 2018. Vice President Pence made a surprise trip last week to Al Asad air base in Iraq, where he served turkey and greeted troops.

Addressing troops assembled in a hangar here, Trump said, “We are winning like we haven’t won in a long time.”

The president served turkey to troops in a cafeteria and posed for photos with many of them.

Trump was on the ground at Bagram for about three-and-half hours after flying there overnight from the United States. His visit was shrouded in secrecy and kept off his public schedule, and aides took extreme security precautions to transport the commander in chief to Afghanistan.

Trump, who had been vacationing with family at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., flew from an undisclosed Florida airport after nightfall Wednesday to Joint Base Andrews near Washington, where he boarded Air Force One for the 13-hour flight to Afghanistan.

The president’s aircraft took off without lights and with its cabin window shades drawn shut to preserve operational secrecy. To limit suspicions about Trump’s whereabouts, White House staff sent tweets from the president’s Twitter account during the time he was flying.

Air Force One descended and touched down at Bagram in complete darkness, and once on the ground, the president was flanked by combat troops wearing night-vision goggles and bearing rifles.

First lady Melania Trump remained in Florida and the president was accompanied by a retinue of senior aides, as well as Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.). He was joined here by Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who had been traveling in the region.

During Trump’s bilateral meeting with Ghani, he confirmed that he would like to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to 8,600, down from about 13,000 currently.

“We’ve made tremendous progress and at the same time we’ve been drawing down our troops,” Trump said.

Ghani told Trump that “Afghan security forces are taking the lead now.”

Trump’s visit had a political dimension, too. With House Democrats poised to impeach him for abusing his office and military leaders alarmed by his intervention in war crimes cases, Trump stood with cheering service members as a reminder that for all his troubles in Washington, he remains the commander in chief.

Trump addressed a campaign rally-style crowd of about 1,500 military personnel in an aircraft hangar, where Ghani took the stage to heap praise on him.

Ghani celebrated Trump as the architect of a strategy that had helped weaken the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, and personally credited him for the killing of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi — which Ghani suggested was more important than the killing of the former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

“I’d like to thank you for your leadership, for your determination,” Ghani told Trump. He went on to express gratitude to Trump for “your very principled decisions regarding putting limits on the type of peace that will ensure the gains of the past year and ensure your security and our security.”

Trump has repeatedly questioned why the United States has kept troops in Afghanistan after nearly two decades of fighting, billions of dollars in aid, and more than 2,000 U.S. military lives have failed to transform the country.

Nineteen U.S. service members have been killed this year in Afghanistan by hostile forces, an increase from 2018.

Trump campaigned in 2016 on withdrawing the United States from foreign wars, but in 2017, he agreed to authorize an increase in U.S. forces as part of a major strategy overhaul of the war. The president’s patience appears to have been wearing thin, however.

Trump complained on Twitter in September that American forces have been acting as “policemen” for Afghanistan. “That was not meant to be the job of our Great Soldiers, the finest on earth,” he wrote.

The Afghan army continues to struggle to mount offensive operations and suffers high casualties 18 years after international forces first arrived in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Ghani recently announced a step forward in his country’s battle against the Afghan branch of the Islamic State after at least several hundred of the hard line militants surrendered to the government.

But the Taliban still poses a formidable threat, retaining an estimated force of 40,000 to 60,000 militants who hold sway across many of Afghanistan’s remote areas and represent the only form of governance in certain places.

Gen. Austin “Scott” Miller, commander of the U.S. coalition forces here, has already executed a modest reduction in the U.S. force level to about 13,000. But further withdrawals appear to be on hold for now as diplomats seek a breakthrough in hoped-for peace talks.

It remains unclear whether Trump will order more troops home in the absence of a political resolution to the war. The proposed U.S.-Taliban agreement, which was intended as a step toward establishing peace negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban, has been shelved since the Camp David talks were called off in September.

Miller has said he could conduct the current mission, which includes training and support to Afghan forces and a parallel counterterrorism effort, with as few as 8,600 U.S. troops. There are currently 13,000 American troops in Afghanistan.

The concern about Afghanistan's future is compounded by prolonged uncertainty surrounding the results of presidential elections in September. Ghani, a former World Bank official, is seeking another term; his challengers include Abdullah Abdullah, who has served as chief executive since September, 2014.

Military commanders point to some important improvements in Afghanistan's fighting ability, in its air forces and ability to mount independent offensives, but anticipate the Kabul government would face an existential threat if foreign troops were to withdraw.

For the Pentagon, the fact that the Afghanistan war has stayed largely out of the headlines of late has been beneficial as officials try to better position the Afghan government.

That picture in the article makes him look like he's imitating Alec Baldwin imitating him.

[fraurosena]

28 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

This is a surprise: "Trump makes surprise visit to U.S. troops in Afghanistan"

  Reveal hidden contents

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan — President Trump visited Afghanistan for the first time on Thursday, delivering Thanksgiving greetings to U.S. troops deployed here in America’s longest-running war and announcing he had resumed peace negotiations with the Taliban.

Making an unannounced trip, Trump touched down at 8:30 p.m. local time at Bagram air base — the primary hub for U.S. air operations located outside the Afghan capital of Kabul — after secretly departing Florida in the dark of night.

Trump has long wanted to draw down forces in Afghanistan and he said during a meeting here with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani that he had restarted peace talks with the Taliban that he broke off almost three months ago, and was hopeful of brokering an accord.

“The Taliban wants to make a deal and we’re meeting with them and we’re saying it has to be a ceasefire and they didn’t want to do a ceasefire, and now they do want to do a ceasefire,” Trump said. “I believe it’ll probably work out that way.”

The Trump administration appeared to be on the brink of striking a deal to jump-start the peace process in September, when the president extended and then canceled an invitation for Taliban representatives to Camp David to cement an agreement to reduce U.S. forces.

This is Trump’s second visit to a combat zone; he visited troops in Iraq the day after Christmas in 2018. Vice President Pence made a surprise trip last week to Al Asad air base in Iraq, where he served turkey and greeted troops.

Addressing troops assembled in a hangar here, Trump said, “We are winning like we haven’t won in a long time.”

The president served turkey to troops in a cafeteria and posed for photos with many of them.

Trump was on the ground at Bagram for about three-and-half hours after flying there overnight from the United States. His visit was shrouded in secrecy and kept off his public schedule, and aides took extreme security precautions to transport the commander in chief to Afghanistan.

Trump, who had been vacationing with family at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., flew from an undisclosed Florida airport after nightfall Wednesday to Joint Base Andrews near Washington, where he boarded Air Force One for the 13-hour flight to Afghanistan.

The president’s aircraft took off without lights and with its cabin window shades drawn shut to preserve operational secrecy. To limit suspicions about Trump’s whereabouts, White House staff sent tweets from the president’s Twitter account during the time he was flying.

Air Force One descended and touched down at Bagram in complete darkness, and once on the ground, the president was flanked by combat troops wearing night-vision goggles and bearing rifles.

First lady Melania Trump remained in Florida and the president was accompanied by a retinue of senior aides, as well as Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.). He was joined here by Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who had been traveling in the region.

During Trump’s bilateral meeting with Ghani, he confirmed that he would like to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to 8,600, down from about 13,000 currently.

“We’ve made tremendous progress and at the same time we’ve been drawing down our troops,” Trump said.

Ghani told Trump that “Afghan security forces are taking the lead now.”

Trump’s visit had a political dimension, too. With House Democrats poised to impeach him for abusing his office and military leaders alarmed by his intervention in war crimes cases, Trump stood with cheering service members as a reminder that for all his troubles in Washington, he remains the commander in chief.

Trump addressed a campaign rally-style crowd of about 1,500 military personnel in an aircraft hangar, where Ghani took the stage to heap praise on him.

Ghani celebrated Trump as the architect of a strategy that had helped weaken the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, and personally credited him for the killing of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi — which Ghani suggested was more important than the killing of the former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

“I’d like to thank you for your leadership, for your determination,” Ghani told Trump. He went on to express gratitude to Trump for “your very principled decisions regarding putting limits on the type of peace that will ensure the gains of the past year and ensure your security and our security.”

Trump has repeatedly questioned why the United States has kept troops in Afghanistan after nearly two decades of fighting, billions of dollars in aid, and more than 2,000 U.S. military lives have failed to transform the country.

Nineteen U.S. service members have been killed this year in Afghanistan by hostile forces, an increase from 2018.

Trump campaigned in 2016 on withdrawing the United States from foreign wars, but in 2017, he agreed to authorize an increase in U.S. forces as part of a major strategy overhaul of the war. The president’s patience appears to have been wearing thin, however.

Trump complained on Twitter in September that American forces have been acting as “policemen” for Afghanistan. “That was not meant to be the job of our Great Soldiers, the finest on earth,” he wrote.

The Afghan army continues to struggle to mount offensive operations and suffers high casualties 18 years after international forces first arrived in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Ghani recently announced a step forward in his country’s battle against the Afghan branch of the Islamic State after at least several hundred of the hard line militants surrendered to the government.

But the Taliban still poses a formidable threat, retaining an estimated force of 40,000 to 60,000 militants who hold sway across many of Afghanistan’s remote areas and represent the only form of governance in certain places.

Gen. Austin “Scott” Miller, commander of the U.S. coalition forces here, has already executed a modest reduction in the U.S. force level to about 13,000. But further withdrawals appear to be on hold for now as diplomats seek a breakthrough in hoped-for peace talks.

It remains unclear whether Trump will order more troops home in the absence of a political resolution to the war. The proposed U.S.-Taliban agreement, which was intended as a step toward establishing peace negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban, has been shelved since the Camp David talks were called off in September.

Miller has said he could conduct the current mission, which includes training and support to Afghan forces and a parallel counterterrorism effort, with as few as 8,600 U.S. troops. There are currently 13,000 American troops in Afghanistan.

The concern about Afghanistan's future is compounded by prolonged uncertainty surrounding the results of presidential elections in September. Ghani, a former World Bank official, is seeking another term; his challengers include Abdullah Abdullah, who has served as chief executive since September, 2014.

Military commanders point to some important improvements in Afghanistan's fighting ability, in its air forces and ability to mount independent offensives, but anticipate the Kabul government would face an existential threat if foreign troops were to withdraw.

For the Pentagon, the fact that the Afghanistan war has stayed largely out of the headlines of late has been beneficial as officials try to better position the Afghan government.

That picture in the article makes him look like he's imitating Alec Baldwin imitating him.

That picture looks completely photoshopped to me. The colors are all off. Trump is the only one in sharp focus. 

And eech, couldn't they have picked a more flattering expression? Couldn't he have smiled? Oh, wait, of course not. He's in a scary war place, forced to give food to scary black people. So of course he looks terrified. Silly me.

[GreyhoundFan]

1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

That picture looks completely photoshopped to me. The colors are all off. Trump is the only one in sharp focus. 

And eech, couldn't they have picked a more flattering expression? Couldn't he have smiled? Oh, wait, of course not. He's in a scary war place, forced to give food to scary black people. So of course he looks terrified. Silly me.

Does he actually have any flattering expressions? I haven't seen any in the last several years. And, remember, he's a tough guy, tough guys don't smile.