WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – President Joe Biden, and Jill his wife launched the holiday season Monday by visiting Fort Bragg in North Carolina for an early Thanksgiving celebration.

Biden and his wife, Sarah Biden, are likely to meet the troops at Fort Bragg to serve meals. This is Biden’s first trip to Fort Bragg since January when he assumed office as President. North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper is likely to join him.

Biden’s holiday visit is in keeping with many of his predecessors who have spent some time with the troops over the holidays.

Biden chose to go to the United States to meet with U.S. forces in the United States, rather than travel overseas after he had withdrawn U.S troops from Afghanistan.

Former Presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and George W. Bush traveled during holiday season to see troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan was a chaotic decision that led to a flurry of criticism.

Fort Bragg has been home to many troops that have deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Biden will be traveling to Nantucket (an island off the Massachusetts coast) to celebrate Thanksgiving Tuesday, continuing the decades-old tradition.

In 2019, he spent Thanksgiving at Nantucket for the first time. The holiday was last year spent at his Delaware residence.