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It’s unclear how American negotiators could get the Taliban to agree to a cease-fire now, when they were not able to do so earlier.

The American military has already begun scaling back its presence in the country, giving negotiators even less leverage than they had before. Last month, the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Austin S. Miller, said the number of troops had been reduced by 2,000 over the past year.

Mr. Trump, on Thursday, said he was “bringing down the number of troops substantially.”

For the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, Mr. Trump’s statements were welcome. For months, Mr. Ghani had unsuccessfully tried to persuade the Americans not to give away an American troop withdrawal without a cease-fire because that would leave his government even more vulnerable.

The government has already been weakened by being excluded from the talks so far because the Taliban refuse to engage before an American troop withdrawal.

Now, suddenly, the American president gave Mr. Ghani’s position a boost at a difficult time for him, when he is stuck in a bitter fight over his re-election in a disputed vote, which is tipping the country to crisis.

Mr. Ghani met with Mr. Trump at the Bagram Air Field on the eve of large protests by supporters of his rival, Abdullah Abdullah. Much of the Afghan capital was under a lockdown by security forces on Friday morning as thousands marched to a roundabout behind the presidential palace demanding fraudulent votes be thrown out.

Mr. Abdullah accuses the country’s election commission of including 300,000 questionable votes in favor of Mr. Ghani.