- President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump made a surprise visit to US troops in Iraq on Wednesday – a first after nearly two years in office.
- The visit to the al-Asad air base just west of Baghdad, comes a day after Christmas and a week after major military shake-ups within the Trump administration.
- Trump, despite claiming that he has done more for the military than other presidents, has been criticized for not only his policies, but also for not visiting Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day this year.
- The Trumps will make two stops in Iraq visiting over 5,000 troops, according to The New York Times.
- See photos of the Trumps’ visit below.
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump made a surprise visit to US troops in Iraq on Wednesday – a first after nearly two years in office.
The visit to the al-Asad air base just west of Baghdad, comes a day after Christmas and a week after major military shake-ups within the Trump administration.
One week ago, Trump announced he was pulling roughly 2,000 US troops out of Syria. The following day Secretary of Defense James Mattis, a retired four star Marine Corps general, resigned from his post over the decision with a scathing letter, rebuking much of Trump’s “America First” foreign policy.
It was also reported last week that Trump would withdraw half of the 14,000 US troops from Afghanistan. On Saturday, Brett McGurk, the US envoy for the global coalition to counter ISIS, who was reportedly scheduled to retire in February, resigned early saying that he could not execute Trump’s Syria strategy.
Trump, despite claiming that he has done more for the military than other presidents, has been criticized for not only his policies (even by lawmakers who are often allies), but also for not visiting Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted about the president's visit.
"President Trump and the First Lady traveled to Iraq late on Christmas night to visit with our troops and Senior Military leadership to thank them for their service, their success, and their sacrifice and to wish them a Merry Christmas," Sanders said.
The Trumps will make two stops in Iraq visiting over 5,000 troops, according to The New York Times. See photos of the visit below:
The president and first lady left, unannounced, on Christmas evening.
The president and first lady meet with military leaders at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq
SOURCE: Reuters
Trump spoke with reporters during a briefing in Iraq.
The trip to Iraq was Trump's first visit to a combat zone during his nearly two years in office.
SOURCE: Business Insider
Trump will make two stops, delivering a message to over 5,000 troops.
SOURCE: The New York Times
While visiting, Trump said he had 'no plans at all' to remove troops from Iraq.
SOURCE: Korey O'Brien
Trump made his visit as the federal government entered day five of a shutdown.
SOURCE: Business Insider
The unannounced trip to Iraq also comes after abrupt changes to military policy and leadership in the White House.
SOURCE: Business Insider
National Security Advisor John Bolton visited too.
The president and first lady met with reporters and military leadership.
They surprised troops at their dining hall in the Al-Asad Airbase.
The visit came days after Secretary of Defense James Mattis, a retired four star Marine Corps general, resigned from his post over the decision to pull troops out of Syria.
The vast majority of Trump's predecessors dating back to World War II visited troops in war zones. The president had been, for a few months, criticized for not visiting troops.
Source: Business Insider
As a presidential candidate, Trump promised to wind down America's involvement in the so-called war on terror.
Source: Business Insider
After saying he won't pull troops out of Afghanistan or Iraq, Trump said "we could use this as a base if we wanted to do something in Syria."
"I will say this, if you take ISIS and if we see something happening with ISIS that we don't like, we can hit them so fast and so hard, they won't, they really won't know what the hell happened."
Trump closed his Q&A by saying "there is nobody that believes more strongly in having a powerful military than I do."
"And we're respected once again in the world," he added, "and that's nice to see because our military — I'm not going to put them on the spot, but our military was seriously depleted when I took office. Seriously depleted. It was in bad shape. And very soon, it's going to be phenomenal shape."
