This Is How Trump Celebrates Thanksgiving 2019: 'We're Talking To Taliban'

President Donald Trump paid an unexpected visit to U.S. troops in Afghanistan on Thanksgiving Day to meet briefly with Afghan president Asraf Ghani and reveal stalled peace talks with the Taliban Islamic terrorist group have re-started. The trip was Trump's first to Afghanistan.

The president also shared a Thanksgiving meal with some of the 12,000 U.S. troops assigned to the U.S.-led Resolute Support Mission at Bagram Air Base an hour's drive from the capital, Kabul. Trump left Afghanistan on the same day.

During his whistlestop trip, Trump again claimed, as he did before he broke-off peace talks with the Taliban in September, the terrorist group “wants to make a deal” and “want to do a ceasefire.”

Speaking at Bagram during his three hour stay, Trump told U.S. troops "the Taliban wants to make a deal. We'll see if they want to make a deal. It's got to be a real deal, but we'll see. But they want to make a deal."

He later re-emphasized the new round of peace talks by saying, “We are talking to the Taliban.” Trump also referred to a budding deal during his meeting with Ghani, “We will see if the Taliban wants to make a deal. If they do, they do. If they don’t they don’t. We were getting close.”

Ghani later tweeted that "both sides underscored that if the Taliban are sincere in their commitment to reaching a peace deal, they must accept a ceasefire. We also emphasized that for any peace to last, terrorist safe havens outside Afghanistan must be dismantled."

Last week, Trump suggested negotiations with the Taliban were back on during an interview on Fox News' "Fox & Friends."

"We're working on an agreement now with the Taliban," said Trump. "Let's see what happens."

Hopes for a peace accord to end the 18-year-old war in Afghanistan came to a halt when Trump unilaterally announced an end to formal talks in September after a Taliban attack in Kabul killed a dozen people, including an American soldier. Trump revealed Taliban leaders were to travel to the U.S. for secret peace talks, but called off the meetings and canceled the negotiations after the attacks.

On Wednesday General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the prospects for successfully ending the war are higher than he has seen before.

"I think the chances of a positive outcome through negotiations is higher than I have seen, and I've been deeply involved in Afghanistan for 18 years," he said.

"With a bit of luck, we'll have successful negotiations in the near term, not too distant future."

The surprise Afghanistan visit came after Trump's controversial decision earlier this month to repudiate U.S. military leaders and intervene in the cases of three service members facing war crimes allegations. Trump pardoned these men of their war crimes against the advice of the Pentagon.

Trump told a campaign rally at Florida on Tuesday he defended these men against the Pentagon, which he referred to as a "Deep State."

“I stuck up for three great warriors against the deep state,” said Trump, linking the U.S. military to his belief in a deep state operating against him for the first time. “And you know what I'm talking about. I had so many people say, ‘Sir, don't think you should do that.’”