President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump traveled to Iraq to meet with American troops for Christmas.
The trip was not made public until after they landed.
“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,” White House press secretary Sarah Saunders said in a statement.
She shared a picture of the president and first lady posing with troops.
“FLOTUS and POTUS have made a surprise visit to our brave U.S. service members currently deployed in Iraq. Thank you to all who serve!!!” Stephanie Grisham, spokeswoman for the first lady, added on Twitter.
It’s Trump’s first visit to troops serving abroad.
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. pic.twitter.com/s2hntnRwpw
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) December 26, 2018
He was spending the holidays at the White House after a planned family trip to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida carried on without him and his wife as they remained in Washington as the government shut down.
Trump insisted the federal budget needed to prevent the shutdown include $5 billion for the border wall, one of his signature campaign promises, but Democrats fought against the funding. With neither side giving in, the shutdown, affecting approximately 25 percent of the government, started.
The Trumps posed for pictures at Al Asad Air Base on Wednesday during the unannounced visit. National Security Adviser John Bolton joined the president and first lady on the trip.
The United States has more than 5,000 troops in the country.
Trump said earlier in the year that he’s been busy when asked why he hadn’t visited troops serving abroad as of yet.
“I will do that at some point, but I don’t think it’s overly necessary. I’ve been very busy with everything that’s taking place here. We have the greatest economy in the history of our country. I mean, this is the greatest economy we’ve ever had, best unemployment numbers,” he told the Associated Press.
“I’m doing a lot of things. But it’s something I’d do. And do gladly. Nobody has been better at the military. Hey, I just got them a pay raise. I haven’t had a pay raise in 11 years. I just got them a substantial pay raise. ‘They’ meaning our military people. I just got them new equipment. They have stuff that was so old that the grandfathers used to fly it. I have done more for the military than any president in many, many years.”
Following through on another campaign promise, Trump announced just before Christmas that he would withdraw a significant portion of the U.S. military posted in Syria, stating that with the decimation of the ISIS terror group, it was time to let U.S. allies take over in the war-torn country.
“We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Dec. 19.
“These victories over ISIS in Syria do not signal the end of the Global Coalition or its campaign,” Sanders added in a statement. “We have started returning United States troops home as we transition to the next phase of this campaign.”