U.S. President Donald Trump displayed reality TV flair on Tuesday to underscore his pledge to wind down the war in Afghanistan, engineering the return of an Army sergeant who surprised his wife and two young children in the House of Representatives as a national broadcast audience looked on.
“We are working to finally end America’s longest war and bring our troops back home!” Trump said in his annual State of the Union speech to Congress, prompting applause from both Democrats and his fellow Republicans.
But the applause would grow louder, and longer, in one of the few nonpartisan moments of Trump’s 80-minute speech.
Discussing the sacrifices of military families, Trump introduced Amy Williams, a military wife from North Carolina sitting by first lady Melania Trump with her two young children.
Trump described Williams as working full-time while raising her children and volunteering to help other military families. She has done that on her own, he said, for the past seven months while Sergeant First Class Townsend Williams was in Afghanistan, his fourth deployment in the region.
“But Amy, there is one more thing. Tonight we have a very special surprise,” the former reality television host said in a departure from his prepared remarks.
“I am thrilled to inform you that your husband is back from deployment. He is here with us tonight, and we couldn’t keep him waiting any longer,” Trump called out. – READ MORE