PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump (all times local):
11:30 a.m.
President Donald Trump says he tries to make sure that the military equipment the U.S. sells abroad is not quite as good as what the country keeps at home.
Trump tells members of a Coast Guard station in Florida, “I always say, make ours a little bit better. … Keep about 10 percent in the bag.” That apparently extends to material sold to allies. Trump says, “You never know about an ally. An ally can turn.”
Trump told several dozen men and women at the Riviera Beach station that, “Nobody has the equipment that we have.”
He added that the country’s “doing really well,” pointing to stock market records and his efforts to roll back regulations and beef up the military.
Trump is spending Thanksgiving at his private club in Palm Beach, Florida.
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10:40 a.m.
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump are visiting a Coast Guard station in Riviera Beach, Florida, as they celebrate Thanksgiving.
Trump is praising the Coast Guard for its work in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in Texas.
He says, “There’s no brand that went up more than the Coast Guard.”
He says, “What a job you’ve done.”
The first couple provided lunch for the men and women spending Thanksgiving at the station near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, including turkey sandwiches, giant muffins, heaping baskets of fruit, chips and cookies.
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9:45 a.m.
President Donald Trump is telling members of the military positioned across the globe that they’re winning big under his watch.
Trump says in a teleconference with the troops on Thanksgiving Day that more progress has been made in recent months in Afghanistan and in fighting the Islamic State group than had been made in years of the previous administration.
He says of the situation in Afghanistan that: “Everybody’s talking about the progress you’ve made in the last few months since I opened it up.”
Trump accused the previous administration of not allowing soldiers on the ground to do their jobs. But he says that now, “We’re not fighting anymore to just walk around, we’re fighting to win.”
He adds that, “We’re being talked about again as an armed forces. We’re really winning.”
Before, he says, “They weren’t letting you win.”
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9:15 a.m.
President Donald Trump has expressed Thanksgiving Day gratitude to members of the armed forces. He spoke with them via conference call from his private club in Palm Beach, Florida. He says they’re “very, very special people” to him and everyone else in the country.
Trump tweeted before the call that he’d be speaking to soldiers in Afghanistan, Iraq, on the USS Monterey, and in Turkey and Bahrain.
He says everyone has been talking about the progress that has been made in Afghanistan in recent months.
He also tweeted that he’ll be visiting a Coast Guard facility in Florida later in the day.
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8 a.m.
President Donald Trump has a Thanksgiving Day message for the nation: Look at all I’ve done.
Trump is telling followers in an early-morning holiday tweet that, “your Country is starting to do really well.”
He says: Jobs are “coming back, highest Stock Market EVER, Military getting really strong, we will build the WALL, V.A. taking care of our Vets, great Supreme Court Justice, RECORD CUT IN REGS, lowest unemployment in 17 years….!”
Trump is celebrating the holiday from his private club Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.
He’s scheduled to thank members of the military via video conference later Thursday morning.
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