During a surprise Thanksgiving Day visit to troops stationed in Afghanistan, President Trump said that his administration has reopened peace talks with the Taliban, nearly three months after he abruptly canceled them. Trump made the announcement at a rally staged at Bagram Air Field, where he exchanged handshakes and posed for photographs with U.S. troops.
The cancellation followed months of negotiations between U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban representatives.
"As you know, for a period of time we've been wanting to make a deal, and so did the Taliban — and we pulled back. We were getting close, and we pulled back because of what they did," Trump told reporters after a meeting at Bagram with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, referring to an attack in Kabul that killed a U.S. service member.
In a series of tweets in September, the president cited the service member's death as a principal cause for the cancellation. Now, he says the Taliban "wants to make a deal."
"If they do, they do, and if they don't, they don't," Trump said at the joint news conference Thursday with Ghani. "That's fine."
The president made the unannounced trip — his first to Afghanistan — after boarding a 12 1/2-hour overnight flight from the East Coast.
There are currently 12,000 to 13,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The president said he intends to bring that number down to 8,600 — or even lower. He campaigned in 2016 on a promise to bring troops home.
"That day is coming and coming soon," he said on Thursday.
The trip came as the president faces an ongoing impeachment inquiry at home. Next week, the House Judiciary Committee will hold its first hearing on whether to pursue articles of impeachment against the president over his pressuring of Ukraine to pursue political investigations while holding up nearly $400 million in security aid to the country.
The Trump administration has also come under fire from his own party about his decision to pull U.S. troops from Syria. He also continues to face questions over his role in the firing of Navy Secretary Richard Spencer over his handling of a case involving a SEAL accused of war crimes.
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