Social media users having been sharing posts that claim President Donald Trump spent Thanksgiving 2020 with troops in Bagram, Afghanistan, not playing golf. This claim is false: the photo of Trump in Bagram is from 2019. On Thanksgiving 2020, official White House transcripts show that Trump addressed the military via video call from the White House and Associated Press photos show he also played golf at his golf club just outside Washington DC.

The posts (here , here) , posted in Dec. 2020, show a photo of Trump speaking to hundreds of members of the military in what looks like a hangar, with the caption, “The media reported “golfing for Thanksgiving” – and you believed them. Wanna know how much time he spent golfing? He snuck out – Boarded a small unmarked plane w/4 blue leather seats and a port-a-potty and took off… to play golf? Nope, CIC [Commander in Chief] flew to Bagram, Afghanistan to serve Thanksgiving dinner to heroes in Camo! But you think he’s an @$$hole…”

The photo is from 2019: Trump himself tweeted the photo on Nov. 29, 2019 with the caption, “Just returned to the United States after spending a GREAT Thanksgiving with our Courageous American Warriors in Afghanistan”, as seen here .

The same photo can be seen on image site Alamy, which dates it back to Nov. 28, 2019 (here) . Other photos, video footage and details of Trump’s trip to Bagram in 2019, where he did serve Thanksgiving dinner to troops, can be seen on the White House website (here) , Department of Defense website (here) and in Reuters photos (here , here , here , here) .

In 2020, Trump spent part of Thanksgiving morning at his Trump National Golf Club in Virginia (just outside Washington DC) as seen in Associated Press images here , here and here , and reported by Reuters here .

Trump also spoke to members of the military and thanked them for their service from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House via video, as shown in this transcript on the White House website here and Reuters photos and reporting here , here , here and here .

The text and photo in the social media posts seem to have been taken from an almost identical post, originally posted on Nov. 30, 2019 (here) , which has been shared over 199,000 times and was still being shared in Dec. 2020 (here , here) .

VERDICT

False. Various sources including the White House website and Trump’s tweet from 2019 show that Trump spent Thanksgiving with the military in Afghanistan in 2019, not 2020. In 2020 the White House website and AP photos show he stayed around Washington DC, playing golf and speaking to the military via video.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here .