President Donald Trump is encouraging Americans to visit Lebanon—despite his own administration warning U.S. citizens not to travel there “for any reason.”
Moments after hosting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the White House on Tuesday, Trump announced on Truth Social that he was directing his administration to allow U.S. airlines to resume direct flights to Lebanon for the first time in more than four decades.
“After meeting with the President of Lebanon, Joseph Aoun, who has done a remarkable job working to transform his Country, I am hereby directing my Administration to allow all U.S. airline carriers to fly directly to Lebanon so that Americans can easily visit this beautiful land,” Trump wrote, before signing off with a simple: “Enjoy!”
The upbeat tourism pitch sits awkwardly alongside the State Department’s current Level 4 travel advisory, which bluntly instructs Americans: “Do not travel to Lebanon for any reason.”
The advisory warns of civil unrest, crime, terrorism, kidnapping, wrongful detention, and limited medical facilities, and remains one of the U.S. government’s strongest travel warnings.
But it is nonetheless a significant move by Trump, given direct flights between the U.S. and Lebanon were suspended in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan’s administration following the hijacking of TWA Flight 847.
Aoun was the first Lebanese president to visit the White House in nearly two decades. The two leaders discussed efforts to stabilize Lebanon after months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, with Aoun pressing Washington to support the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon and back his government’s push to curb Hezbollah’s influence.
Trump vowed that the U.S. would help Lebanon “a lot,” telling reporters in the Oval Office: “It’s been a very badly treated place and country and we’re going to have it properly treated and treated with the respect it deserves.”
But while the U.S. has pushed for peace in Lebanon, Trump has been increasingly distracted by the escalating war in Iran. On Tuesday, the president said he had little interest in talks with Iran’s leader to end the war—at least for now.
But he became visibly annoyed when pressed on the endgame, snapping at yet another female reporter doing her job.
“There are no signs that Iran is ready to stop fighting. So what is the plan? Is the plan to just keep bombing until they give up?” asked ABC’s White House correspondent Mary Bruce.
“Well, how would you know there are no signs? Why? Do you know something that I don’t know?” Trump hit back.
“Well, they continue to attack our allies and kill Americans,” Bruce replied.
“You don’t know what the dialogue is behind the scenes: that they want to meet desperately to try and end it because they’re getting decimated,” Trump told her, before reverting to a familiar line of attack.
“You don’t get that when you listen to your fake station, but you don’t know. You don’t know anything.”
