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.UPDATE
(Via AP)
Trump’s trip was shrouded in secrecy. Air Force One flew overnight from Washington, landing at an airbase west of Baghdad under the cover of darkness Wednesday evening. It is his first visit with troops stationed in a troubled region.
UPDATE 2
From Bloomberg White House correspondent:
President Trump just finished addressing members of the military at Al Abad Air Base in Iraq. @flotus joined him on the trip.
UPDATE 3
From Bloomberg White House correspondent:
The president told reporters at Joint Base al Asad, west of Baghdad, that he has no plans to withdraw American troops from Iraq and that the U.S. may use the country as a base for regional operations against adversaries including Islamic State.
“If we see something happening with ISIS that we don’t like, we can hit them so fast and so hard they really won’t know what the hell happened,” Trump said, using an acronym for the militant group that he has said is defeated. “We’ve knocked them silly.”
UPDATE 4
From Bloomberg White House correspondent:
Trump...was expected to be on the ground in Iraq for only a few hours. For security reasons, the White House didn’t let journalists accompanying the president report his visit until more than two hours after he landed. Trump left for Iraq on Christmas night and will return Thursday.
UPDATE 5
(12-26-18 7:53 ET)
UPDATE 6JUST IN: President Trump has landed at Ramstein Air Base in Germany following his surprise visit to Iraq - NBC News— Breaking911 (@breaking9111)
UPDATE 7Air Force One has landed at Ramstein Air Base in Germany for President Trump to briefly meet with troops here (cc @steveholland1’s reflection) pic.twitter.com/pf2TMlljFa— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps)
Pres Trump wheels up from Germany headed home.— Steve Holland (@steveholland1)
-RW
No comments:
Post a Comment