Trump makes surprise Christmas visit to troops in Iraq in first trip to combat zone

[GMDino]

Someone is worried about their ratings....

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-donald-trump-visits-us-troops-deployed-iraq/story?id=60021004

Quote:President Donald Trump went to Al Asad Air Base in Iraq on his first visit to U.S. troops in the Middle East as president.


First lady Melania Trump joined him on the unscheduled Wednesday visit.

View image on Twitter

Quote:
[/url]Sarah Sanders

@PressSec




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.

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2:18 PM - Dec 26, 2018

7,398 people are talking about this

[url=https://twitter.com/PressSec/status/1078007105339224064]
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Trump visited with U.S. troops stationed in South Korea in Nov. 2017, but he had yet to visit Americans deployed in the Middle East.

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump greet military personnel at the dining facility during an unannounced visit to Al Asad Air Base, Iraq Dec. 26, 2018.more +


(MORE: Trump claims 'many' furloughed or unpaid federal workers want wall, support gov't shutdown)

Trump’s immediate predecessors each visited troops in the region much earlier: President George W. Bush first traveled to Baghdad in Nov. 2003, roughly eight months after ordering American troops to Iraq.
President Barack Obama, who first visited Iraq as a senator, made his first trip as commander-in-chief in April 2008, roughly three months after taking office.

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump greet military personnel at the dining facility during an unannounced visit to Al Asad Air Base, Iraq Dec. 26, 2018.more +

Trump first visited with troops overseas in Italy in May 2017, roughly four months after taking office.
His visit Wednesday, the day after Christmas, continues a long tradition of presidents visiting with service members at home or abroad during the holiday season. On Christmas Day, Trump participated in a video call with service members serving across the country and overseas during the holidays.

(MORE: Trump thanks troops by phone, hints he might visit Afghanistan war zone)

Trump’s visit comes after the president’s decision to withdraw American troops from Syriasurprised Washington, blindsiding lawmakers, members of the administration and American allies across the world and on the ground fighting Islamic State in Syria.

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump greet military personnel at the dining facility during an unannounced visit to Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, Dec. 26, 2018.more +

On Thursday, the Trump administration announced it was planning to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, cutting the current force of 14,000 service members to 7,000. Those troops could return home by the end of spring, an American official told ABC News.

(MORE: President Trump not going to change his mind on Syria, even after resignations: Mick Mulvaney)



(MORE: Trump planning to pull 7,000 troops from Afghanistan, reducing force by half)

Defense Secretary James Mattis also resigned Thursday, after the decision was made, having clashed with the president over policy and their divergent worldviews and philosophies on American military power.
While his resignation letter said he would stay on until the end of February to ensure a smooth transition, Trump moved up the timeline, forcing Mattis out of the administration by the end of the year.

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
President Donald Trump, flanked by National Security Adviser John Bolton, first lady Melania Trump and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Doug Silliman, meets political and military leaders during an unannounced visit to Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, Dec. 26, 2018.more +


(MORE: Secretary of Defense James Mattis to leave post by start of new year, earlier than expected, Trump announces)

Deputy defense secretary Patrick Shanahan, a former Boeing executive with no prior military or government experience, will replace the retired Marine in an acting capacity.

And no, I don't give him too much "credit" for finally going.  Until he shows signs of being a decent person/POTUS he doesn't get credit for simply doing what every other POTUS has done.

[*bfine32*]

You can't please some of the people any of the time

As to his rating with the Military; I'm pretty sure he's good.

[Belsnickel]

(12-26-2018, 05:25 PM)bfine32 Wrote: As to his rating with the Military; I'm pretty sure he's good.

Eh, that may not be entirely true.

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2018/10/15/support-for-trump-is-fading-among-active-duty-troops-new-poll-shows/

[*bfine32*]

(12-26-2018, 05:28 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: Eh, that may not be entirely true.

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2018/10/15/support-for-trump-is-fading-among-active-duty-troops-new-poll-shows/

Believe what you read. I'm gonna go with his approval numbers are just fine in the Military. When the voter closes the curtain they're going to vote for the person that wants to increase their budget, not reduce it. I just found it disingenuous to suggest this was some "stunt" to boost numbers with the Military.

What are your views on the visit?

[GMDino]

(12-26-2018, 05:25 PM)bfine32 Wrote: You can't please some of the people any of the time

As to his rating with the Military; I'm pretty sure he's good.

Like I said...he doesn't get credit for doing what he is suppose to.  That's just lowering the bar by his supporters.

(12-26-2018, 05:32 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Believe what you read. I'm gonna go with his approval numbers are just fine in the Military. When the voter closes the curtain they're going to vote for the person that wants to increase their budget, not reduce it. I just found it disingenuous to suggest this was some "stunt" to boost numbers with the Military.

What are your views on the visit?

Oh not with this military...but with hie base. They think he's a tough guy and he supports the troops. So eventually he had to visit them.

Typical of his supporters:  Don't believe what you read believe what you know.  It's laughable.

[ballsofsteel]

(12-26-2018, 05:51 PM)GMDino Wrote: Like I said...he doesn't get credit for doing what he is suppose to.  That's just lowering the bar by his supporters.



Oh not with this military...but with hie base.  They think he's a tough guy and he supports the troops.  So eventually he had to visit them.

Typical of his supporters:  Don't believe what you read believe what you know.  It's laughable.

Trump defeated Isis. He will get the Nobel Peace Prize. Dam, that Melenie is good looking, what a waste.

[*bfine32*]

(12-26-2018, 05:51 PM)GMDino Wrote: Like I said...he doesn't get credit for doing what he is suppose to.  That's just lowering the bar by his supporters.



Oh not with this military...but with hie base.  They think he's a tough guy and he supports the troops.  So eventually he had to visit them.

Typical of his supporters:  Don't believe what you read believe what you know.  It's laughable.

Laugh all you want; however, it would be like me posting something suggesting a liberal's numbers are slipping in California and then suggesting they should worry about the state.

As I said, feel free to believe what you read. 

Also, I give ANYONE credit that pays a visit to the troops; we apparently differ on the matter. I don't have to be a Trump supporter; it is not a partisan issue to me

[Belsnickel]

(12-26-2018, 05:32 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Believe what you read. I'm gonna go with his approval numbers are just fine in the Military. When the voter closes the curtain they're going to vote for the person that wants to increase their budget, not reduce it. I just found it disingenuous to suggest this was some "stunt" to boost numbers with the Military.

I do believe what I read when they are statements made with evidence rather than guesses. There are margins of error, sure, but it is pretty clear what the trend has been for his approval ratings with the military. As for the suggestion being disingenuous, I don't see it as so. I don't necessarily agree, but "stunt[s]" are the norm for Trump.

(12-26-2018, 05:32 PM)bfine32 Wrote: What are your views on the visit?

Same as my views on his not visiting: I don't care.

[GMDino]

(12-26-2018, 06:06 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Laugh all you want; however, it would be like me posting something suggesting a liberal's numbers are slipping in California and then suggesting they should worry about the state.

As I said, feel free to believe what you read. 

Actually it's the opposite of that since IF you provide something of substance rather than just your own opinion it would be worth believing.

(12-26-2018, 06:06 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Also, I give ANYONE credit that pays a visit to the troops; we apparently differ on the matter. I don't have to be a Trump supporter; it is not a partisan issue to me

Again, you give him credit for doing what he should be doing. When he does something more he'll earn my respect.

I didn't take an oath to blindly support the POTUS...we differ on that too.

[*bfine32*]

(12-26-2018, 06:28 PM)GMDino Wrote: Actually it's the opposite of that since IF you provide something of substance rather than just your own opinion it would be worth believing.


Again, you give him credit for doing what he should be doing.  When he does something more he'll earn my respect.

I didn't take an oath to blindly support the POTUS...we differ on that too.

As i said I give anyone credit that travels to visit the Troops in a combat environment. 

Who else, In your opinion, "should" be visiting the Troops?

[fredtoast]

People are saying it was the greatest visit with the troops ever by any President.







I'll give him credit for finally doing it.

[BmorePat87]

One benefit of the shutdown: Trump went to Iraq to visit the troops instead of Mar a Lago to golf. On top of this being a more worthwhile use of his time, it also puts a positive story in the news during a very bad week

[GMDino]

(12-26-2018, 07:40 PM)BmorePat87 Wrote: One benefit of the shutdown: Trump went to Iraq to visit the troops instead of Mar a Lago to golf. On top of this being a more worthwhile use of his time, it also puts a positive story in the news during a very bad week

Again he finally did what he should have before (yay for him)...that doesn't deserve praise.

It's amazing how if DJT can go a day without insulting someone or saying something incredibly stupid/or lying his supporters want to throw a party for him.

[GMDino]

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-navy-seal-iraq-video-1272102

Quote:President Donald Trump and the White House communications team revealed that a U.S. Navy SEAL team was deployed to Iraq after the president secretly traveled to the region to meet with American forces serving in a combat zone for the first time since being elected to office.


While the commander-in-chief can declassify information, usually the presence of a special operations unit, to include, showing their faces would not be revealed to the American public, especially while the U.S. service members were still deployed. 
Current and former Defense Department officials told Newsweek that the information is almost always classified and is a violation of operational security. 


Trump flew to Iraq late Christmas Day after facing a barrage of negative headlines over the holiday season amid a partial government shutdown. The president and first lady Melania Trump posed for pictures with U.S. service members at al-Asad air base in Iraq.

The clandestine trip came a week after Trump ordered the Pentagon to begin planning the withdraw roughly 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria and around 7,000 from Afghanistan over the next few months. The abrupt decision prompted the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who disagreed with the drawdown.


A pool report during Trump’s visit said the details of the trip were embargoed until the president finished giving his remarks to a group of about 100 mostly U.S. special operation troops engaged in combat operations in Iraq and Syria.


The pool report went on to say that Trump paused to take a selfie with U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Kyu Lee, who said he was the chaplain for SEAL Team Five, based out of Coronado, California. The chaplain said Trump told him: “Hey, in that case, let’s take a picture.”


After Trump left Iraqi airspace, the president posted a video to his Twitter account of his time spent with American forces during his visit to Iraq. Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA,” plays over the video and shows the president and the first lady posing for pictures with service members that appear to be from SEAL Team Five. The special warfare operators are dressed in full battle gear and wearing night vision goggles.

The video cuts to team members shaking the president’s hand before cutting to other special operations personnel and support troops. 
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump greet members of the U.S. military during an unannounced trip to Al Asad Air Base in Iraq on December 26, 2018. In the photograph, Lieutenant Commander Kyu Lee poses for a picture with the president after saying he was the chaplain for SEAL Team Five, a U.S. Navy special operations unit based out of Coronado, California.SAUL LOEB/AFP


Malcolm Nance, a former U.S. Navy intelligence specialist with experience in Iraq told Newsweek on Wednesday that posting the video was a break from traditional procedures that are usually strictly enforced and designed to safeguard the identities of U.S. special operation forces, especially when deployed to a combat zone.


“Operational security is the most important aspect of personnel deployments. The real names, faces, and identities, of personnel involved in special operations or activities, are usually a closely held secret in a combat zone,” Nance said. 


“Revealing them casually, through an unusual media exposure even if it’s the commander in chief, would prove a propaganda boom if any of this personnel are detained by a hostile government or captured by a terrorist group. There would be no denying who you are and what you do.”


Contacted by Newsweek, the Pentagon referred questions to the White House communications team.
Naval Special Warfare Command and the White House did not return a request for comment from Newsweek as of publication.


The deployments of special operation forces, including Navy SEALs are almost classified events, as to protect those men and women that are on the front lines of every overt and covert conflict the United States is involved in,” a Defense Department official told Newsweek on condition of anonymity.


“Even during special operation demonstrations for congressional delegations or for the president or vice president, personnel either have their faces covered or their face is digitally blurred prior to a release to the general public,” the official said.



The president’s video did not blur the faces of special operation forces.


"I don't recall another time where special operation forces had to pose with their faces visible while serving in a war zone,” the Pentagon official said.

[GMDino]

Oh look...Trump was making it a political event.  

https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2018/12/26/trump-hate-military-rule-troops/

Quote:President Donald Trump made his first visit to a war zone on Wednesday, receiving an enthusiastic reception from many US troops there — some of whom may have run afoul of military rules.


Video footage and the written report of Trump’s visit with service members in Iraq showed the President signing “Make America Great Again” hats and an embroidered patch that read “Trump 2020.”


But troops’ requests for the autographs could brush up against Department of Defense guidelines for political activities.


Those guidelines say that “active duty personnel may not engage in partisan political activities and all military personnel should avoid the inference that their political activities imply or appear to imply DoD sponsorship, approval, or endorsement of a political candidate, campaign, or cause.”


US military authorities in the coalition did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.


Retired Rear Adm. John Kirby, a former Obama administration spokesperson and a CNN analyst, said on CNN’s “The Situation Room” on Wednesday that service members having Trump sign the items was inappropriate.


“It is, in fact, a campaign slogan, that is a campaign item, and it is completely inappropriate for the troops to do this,” Kirby said.



Kirby assigned some blame to Trump himself for political activity around the military: “Every time he’s around military audiences, he tends to politicize it, and he brings in complaints and grievances from outside the realm of military policy.”

[Yojimbo]

(12-27-2018, 12:11 AM)GMDino Wrote: Oh look...Trump was making it a political event.  

https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2018/12/26/trump-hate-military-rule-troops/

Can the guy go anywhere without embarrassing himself and the country?

Apparently he didn’t go through the proper channels when visiting a foreign country, just went in acting like the U.S. owns Iraq. A lot of Iraqi government officials in both major parties saw his visit as an insult. Winning hearts and minds all over the world...

https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2018/12/181227014528458.html


Aaaand he shit the bed even worse than I thought. Posted video to his twitter account that revealed a classified special forces deployment and the SEALs’ faces. SMDH

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-navy-seal-iraq-video-1272102?amp=1



Woke up this morning to more fallout from this trip. Irqi parliament has called a special session to debate expelling U.S. troops from the country due to Trump violating their sovereignty.

Also, Trump continued his bald face lying, this time right to the faces of the troops. He told them he personally secured them a 10 percent raise for this year. The truth is they are getting the standard cost of living increase of 2.6 percent. Just when you think the guy couldn't get any lower.

[Dill]

(12-26-2018, 05:32 PM)bfine32 Wrote:
Believe what you read. I'm gonna go with his approval numbers are just fine in the Military. When the voter closes the curtain they're going to vote for the person that wants to increase their budget, not reduce it. I just found it disingenuous to suggest this was some "stunt" to boost numbers with the Military.

What are your views on the visit?

Bels believes what he reads.  That seems a disqualification.

You believe Trump's "approval numbers are just fine in the military."  However your belief is not based on mere reading, but some other source?
Do you believe what you read too, just read different sources?

You are "free to believe" as anyone else in the forum. But I suspect some in the forum may be less free, given their adherence to standards of evidence.

[GMDino]

...and DJT lied directly to the troops while he was there.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/26/politics/trump-misleads-military-pay-raise-again/index.html

Quote:President Donald Trump incorrectly told troops in Iraq on Wednesday that he gave them their first pay raise in more than 10 years -- a falsehood he has repeatedly told.


Speaking to troops at Al Asad Air Base during his surprise visit to Iraq, Trump told troops: "You protect us. We are always going to protect you. And you just saw that, 'cause you just got one of the biggest pay raises you've ever received. ... You haven't gotten one in more than 10 years. More than 10 years. And we got you a big one. I got you a big one. I got you a big one."


In fact, military pay has increased every year for more than three decades. It was raised 2.4% in 2018 and then 2.6% in the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act. The 2.6% pay raise is the largest in the past 9 years.

The President and first lady quietly swept into Iraq on Wednesday to pay a holiday visit to US troops -- the first trip Trump has made to a war zone.

"They had plenty of people that came up, they said, 'You know, we could make it smaller. We could make it 3%, we could make it 2%, we could make it 4%,'" Trump told the troops about the latest pay raise. "I said, 'No. Make it 10%. Make it more than 10%.'"



'Cause it's been a long time, it's been more than 10 years. Been more than 10 years, that's a long time," Trump said, repeating the false claim. 

I'm sure this is why people "know" the troops support for DJT isn't waning at all...

[Yojimbo]

(12-27-2018, 12:21 PM)GMDino Wrote: ...and DJT lied directly to the troops while he was there.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/26/politics/trump-misleads-military-pay-raise-again/index.html




I'm sure this is why people "know" the troops support for DJT isn't waning at all...

It’s really going to be terrible for their morale when they read the news this morning, after the happiness and high they felt last night as they went to sleep thinking they were getting a 10 percent raise. Like morale in a war zone isn’t bad enough already.

[ballsofsteel]

What a coward.

http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/25671/trump-had-never-seen-anything-like-his-secretive-flight-to-iraq-aboard-air-force-one