President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump made a surprise visit to Iraq on Wednesday — their first visit to a war zone since Trump took office nearly two years ago.
In photos distributed by Reuters, the president and first lady posed for selfies with the troops. The president spoke to military and political leaders at Al Asad Airbase, in western Iraq, as well.
The base is a roughly 185 kilometers outside of Syria, where the president last week initiated a withdrawal of U.S. troops.
'It’s time for us to start using our head. We don’t want to be taken advantage of anymore,' Trump said of the topic on Wednesday from Iraq.
Trump was in the country for roughly three hours before the White House confirmed his whereabouts, a report in Bloomberg News indicated.
The White House said in a statement that the Trumps secretly traveled to Iraq yesterday evening, on Christmas, to wish service men and women a happy holiday.
The secret trip came amid speculation that President Trump was not at the White House, because he had not tweeted for hours and the marine that stands guard when he's in the Oval Office was not outside the West Wing.
President Trump had said he would visit Afghanistan soon but visited Iraq over the Christmas holiday, instead, several days after announcing that he will be pulling U.S. troops out of Syria.
In a statement posted on Twitter, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed the visit in a tweet shortly after Reuters shared the photos of the president.
'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,' she said.
