Trump and the DMZ: The surprise that wasn't to be

It was the big surprise that was not to be.

President Donald Trump's Chief of Staff John Kelly, at center, checks his watch as administration staff try to wait out a bad weather call at U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan, Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Donald Trump, America's showman president, hatched a secret plan to visit the Korean Peninsula's demilitarized zone before he ever left Washington last week on a five-nation tour of Asia, the White House said.

Trump teased a show-stopper during a toast at a state dinner being held in his honor in Seoul on Tuesday night, promising: "We're going to have an exciting day tomorrow for many reasons" that "people will find out."

President Donald Trump sits in his presidential limo as Chief of Staff John Kelly, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, both at center, and other members of the administration try to wait out a bad weather call at U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan, Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

With reporters sworn to secrecy and a beefed-up security retinue in tow, his helicopter took off in the dim early morning light Wednesday bound for the heavily fortified border.

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had announced the destination by scrawling the letters "'DMZ" on a notepad, saying that was how she was told to communicate the sensitive information.

But plans for the grand reveal were botched by Mother Nature, and Sanders described Trump as disappointed — and "pretty frustrated."

A Secret Service Counter Assault Team member speaks with a Secret Service Agent as a support helicopter traveling with President Donald Trump returns to U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

The snafu is a particularly humbling moment for a win-focused president. Trump has employed increasingly tough rhetoric against North Korea over its continued nuclear and ballistic missile programs, but found his DMZ power-play derailed by weather.

Just after daybreak, Trump's motorcade had departed unannounced for Yongsan Garrison, a U.S. Army base in Seoul, where a fleet of military helicopters was standing by for the roughly 35-mile flight to the DMZ. Trump had been scheduled to arrive at Observation Post Ouellette, the closest post to the 1953 armistice line, where he would follow his three direct predecessors in peering into North Korea.

Secret Service Counter Assault Team members load up in a support helicopter as President Donald Trump prepares to depart in Marine One from U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2017.(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

But visibility below one mile and misting conditions determined otherwise. Trump was traveling in a five-helicopter air convoy, consisting of two identical VH-60Ns — Marine One and a decoy — and three Chinooks carrying press, aides, and heavily-armed security.

As they neared the DMZ landing site, the pilots were unable to see the other helicopters around them, Sanders said. Military pilots, in conjunction with the U.S. Secret Service, decided it was unsafe to continue, and the helicopters reversed course and returned to Yongsan.

Undeterred, Trump waited nearly an hour in his armored limousine near the helicopters in hopes of a clearing in the weather, but none was forthcoming. White House staff, including Sanders and chief of staff John Kelly, passed the time making frequent glances at the overcast sky.

Just before 9 a.m., the final call was made: the stop was off. Trump's 11 a.m. address to the South Korean National Assembly could not be delayed to accommodate a later trip. Trump had also been scheduled to visit with families of diplomats at the U.S. embassy in Seoul, but first lady Melania Trump filled that engagement.

Trump was set to depart Seoul for Beijing, China after the Assembly address. The elaborately choreographed arrival ceremony there, which has been timed to sunset, meant Trump could not afford to visit the DMZ later Wednesday.

In advance of the 12-day trip, White House officials had publicly dismissed the idea of a visit to the DMZ as "a little bit of a cliché." But behind the scenes, Trump made clear to aides he intended to follow through with the presidential rite of passage.

Shrouded in secrecy and symbolism, presidential visits to American troops stationed in South Korea and the DMZ have become a staple of trips to the peninsula for decades. Every president since Ronald Reagan has visited the 1953 armistice line, except for George H.W. Bush, who visited when he was vice president. The show of bravado and support for one of America's closest military allies has evolved over the years to include binoculars and bomber jackets.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in was set to join Trump at the DMZ, but was diverted as well. The South Korean leader landed at an alternate site about a 20-minute drive from the DMZ, but that was not a possibility for Trump, given the logistics of moving his larger motorcade along streets that hadn't been secured.

"For President Moon and President Trump to go to together would have been historic, it was supposed to be a symbol of the strong alliance," Sanders said once Trump returned to his hotel. "I think the fact that they were both planning shows the importance."

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States will pull the majority of its troops from Chad and Niger as it works to restore key agreements governing what role there might be there for the American military and its counterterrorism operations, the Pentagon said Thursday.

Both African countries have been integral to the U.S. military’s efforts to counter violent extremist organizations across the Sahel region, but Niger’s ruling junta ended an agreement last month that allows U.S. troops to operate in the West African country. In recent days, neighboring Chad also has questioned whether an existing agreement covered the U.S. troops operating there.

The U.S. will relocate most of the approximately 100 forces it has deployed in Chad for now, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said Thursday at a press briefing.

“As talks continue with Chadian officials, U.S. AFRICOM is currently planning to reposition some U.S. military forces from Chad, some portions of which were already scheduled to depart. This is a temporary step as part of the ongoing review of our security cooperation, which will resume after Chad’s May 6th presidential election," Ryder said.

In Niger, the majority of the 1,000 U.S. personnel assigned there also are expected to depart, Ryder said.

U.S. and Nigerien officials were expected to meet Thursday in Niger's capital, Niamey, “to initiate discussions on an orderly and responsible withdrawal of U.S. forces," the State Department said in a statement late Wednesday. Follow-up meetings between senior Pentagon and Niger officials are expected next week “to coordinate the withdrawal process in a transparent manner and with mutual respect,” Ryder said.

Called status-of-forces agreements, these deals allow the U.S. to conduct critical counterterrorism operations within both countries' borders and have supported military partner training. The reversals have prompted concern that U.S. influence in Africa is losing ground to overtures from Russia and China.

Relations have frayed between Niger and Western countries since mutinous soldiers ousted the country’s democratically elected president in July. Niger’s junta has since told French forces to leave and turned instead to Russia for security.

Earlier this month, Russian military trainers arrived to reinforce the country’s air defenses and they brought Russian equipment, which they would train Nigeriens to use.

Niger plays a central role in the U.S. military’s operations in Africa’s Sahel region, a vast region south of the Sahara Desert. Washington is concerned about the spread of jihadi violence where local groups have pledged allegiance to al-Qaida and the Islamic State groups.

Niger is home to a major U.S. air base in the city of Agadez, about 920 kilometers (550 miles) from the capital, which is used for manned and unmanned surveillance flights and other operations. The U.S. also has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in training Niger’s military since beginning operations there in 2013.

Officials from the State Department, U.S. Africa Command and the Pentagon will work with Chad’s government to make the case for U.S. forces to continue operations, Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman Adm. Christopher Grady said Wednesday.

Grady told The Associated Press in an interview that if both countries ultimately decide the U.S. cannot remain, the military will have to look for alternatives to run counterterrorism missions across the Sahel.

“If we are asked to leave, and after negotiations that’s the way it plays out, then we are going to have to recalculate and figure out a new way to do it,” Grady said.

The news of the departure of U.S. forces in Chad was first reported by The New York Times.

FILE - Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Adm. Christopher Grady, right, arrives for a closed door briefing about the leaked highly classified military documents, on Capitol Hill, April 19, 2023, in Washington. Grady says there's been no final decision on whether or not all U.S. troops will leave Niger and Chad. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

US to pull troops from Chad and Niger as the African nations question its counterterrorism role

US to pull troops from Chad and Niger as the African nations question its counterterrorism role

FILE - A U.S. and Niger flag are raised side by side at the base camp for air forces and other personnel supporting the construction of Niger Air Base 201 in Agadez, Niger, April 16, 2018. The United States is attempting to create a new military agreement with Niger that would allow it to remain in the country, weeks after the junta said its presence was no longer justified, two Western officials told The Associated Press Friday April 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Carley Petesch, File)