WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, are launching the holiday season on Monday with a visit to U.S. troops at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, for an early Thanksgiving celebration.
The Bidens are expected to greet the troops and help serve some meals during what is Biden’s first visit to Fort Bragg since he took over as president in January. He is expected to be joined by North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper.
Biden’s visit follows many of his predecessors’ well-trodden path of spending some time with the troops during the holiday season.
Since he has withdrawn troops from Afghanistan and is set to end the U.S. combat mission in Iraq by year’s end, Biden chose to visit U.S. forces within the United States rather than go abroad.
Former presidents including Donald Trump, Barack Obama and George W. Bush all traveled to visit troops in either Iraq or Afghanistan during the holiday season.
Biden’s decision to pull out of Afghanistan prompted a chaotic withdrawal that has been heavily criticized.
Many troops who have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan have been stationed at Fort Bragg.
Biden on Tuesday will travel to Nantucket, an island off the coast of Massachusetts, to spend Thanksgiving, continuing a decades-long tradition of celebrating the holiday there.
He last spent Thanksgiving on Nantucket in 2019. Last year he spent the holiday at his Delaware home.
(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Sandra Maler)
