Social media users have shared reports claiming that President Donald Trump spent Thanksgiving 2020 with troops in Bagram, Afghanistan, and did not play golf. This claim is false: the photo of Trump in Bagram is from 2019. On Thanksgiving 2020, official transcripts of the White House show that Trump addressed the military via a video call from the White House and photos from the Associated Press show that he also only plays golf played outside Washington DC.
The posts (here, here), posted in December 2020, shows a photo of Trump talking to hundreds of members of the military that looks like a hangar, with the caption: ‘The media reported’ golf for Thanksgiving ‘- and you believed them. Want to know how much time he spent golfing? He sneaks out – gets on a small unmarked plane with 4 blue leather seats and a port-a-potty and leaves … to play golf? No, CIC [Commander in Chief] flew to Bagram, Afghanistan, to serve Thanksgiving dinner to heroes in Camo! But you think he’s a @ $$ hole … ”
The photo is from 2019: Trump himself tweeted the photo on November 29, 2019 with the caption: “Just back to the United States after spending a BIG Thanksgiving with our Courageous American Warriors in Afghanistan”, as seen here .
The same photo can be seen on the image website Alamy, which dates from 28 November 2019 (here). Other photos, videos and details of Trump’s trip to Bagram in 2019, where he served troops thanks to Thanksgiving dinner, can be viewed on the White House website (here), the Department of Defense (here) and on Reuters photos (here, here, here, here).
In 2020, Trump spent part of the Thanksgiving morning at his Trump National Golf Club in Virginia (just outside Washington DC), as seen in the Associated Press images here, here and here, and reported here by Reuters.
Trump also spoke to members of the military and thanked them for their service from the White House Diplomatic Reception Room via video, as shown in this transcript on the White House website here and photos from Reuters and reported here, here, here and here .
The text and photo in the social media posts were apparently taken from an almost identical post, originally posted on November 30, 2019 (here), which was shared more than 199,000 times and still shared in December 2020 (here, here) .
VERDICT
Untrue. Several sources, including the White House website and Trump’s tweet of 2019, show that Trump spent Thanksgiving with the military in Afghanistan in 2019, not in 2020. military via video.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.