Trump Surprises American Troops in Iraq
In articles published Tuesday, news outlets criticized Trump for choosing not to drop in and visit troops on Christmas.
President Trump and the First Lady surprised American troops stationed in Iraq when he dropped by to wish them Merry Christmas.
From White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders:
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
More from the NYT:
The place Mr. Trump chose to visit is the one theater of war where he has not promised a rapid drawdown of forces — and it is where he claims his greatest military victory, the defeat of the Islamic State in Mosul, the Iraqi city where the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the beginning of its self-proclaimed caliphate. The assault on Mosul by Iraqi forces, backed by Americans, began under President Barack Obama but culminated in the summer of 2017 under Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump, who was accompanied by his wife, Melania Trump, was expected to make two stops on his post-Christmas trip, delivering a holiday message to the more than 5,000 American forces stationed in the country.
In articles published Tuesday, news outlets criticized Trump for choosing not to drop in and visit troops on Christmas. Like this one from NBC:
On Christmas Day, President Donald Trump took part in a long-running practice of presidents who called troops stationed around the country and the world.
But he broke from a recent tradition of actually visiting troops and wounded warriors. He did so in 2017, when he visited wounded troops at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Dec. 21 (and invited Coast Guard service members to play golf at his course in West Palm Beach, Florida).
By staying home on Tuesday, Trump became the first president since 2002 who didn’t visit military personnel around Christmastime.
Based on a check of NBC logs, President Barack Obama visited troops at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, in Kaneohe Bay, every Christmas he was in office, from 2009 to 2016.
Before him, according to a check of news releases, President George W. Bush visited wounded warriors at Walter Reed from 2003 to 2008. He did not visit troops at Christmas in 2002, in the run-up to the Iraq War, or in 2001.
Media reaction is pretty well summed up in this tweet:
Trump is terrible because he hasn’t been to Iraq. And now he’s terrible because he has. https://t.co/dDCz5q1yiG
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) December 26, 2018
And this one, too:
“Why are you so critical of the media?!” pic.twitter.com/hUVJt7zuEW
— Jose Galvan (@Jose_Galvan) December 26, 2018
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Comments
I had a dream that yesterday the MSM had rabidly criticized Trump for doing nothing re the military….oh. wait. That wasn’t a dream. And Trump was flying to the troops.
Gee, if we knew you were coming, we would have cleaned the place up.
If they (the reporters, that is) ‘d known he was coming they’d’ve blabbed it to the whole world, and endangered his life.
Yes, Yahoo is busily “disappearing” their earlier hit pieces.
Gosh, Obama flew to Hawaii and visited the troops during Christmas break? Profiles in Courage.
/golfclap
Nah, he was there anyway.
Melania looks great in army boots!
True, but in my day the boots were black and were expected to be highly shined (at least when in garrison.) But in hindsight the shining requirement was a form of hazing. The new boots are far more practical.
It may be the bias of my masculine gendered eye, but I would say that she simply looks great. A classical, feminine aesthetic, tastefully presented.
Not to be too picky, but “accompanied by his wife” instead of “by First Lady” is sort of a putdown, although maybe the Times used to refer to Bruno the same way. I don’t recall.
The comments on the news stories are all funny-sad. People who wouldn’t shake the hand of a service member were all frothing mad about DT not traveling to a war zone to greet the troops, then reverse themselves into some sort of delusion where somehow he planned and executed the visit in the last 24 hours to avoid criticism for (insert laundry list of familiar complaints here). I swear the man could cure cancer, and the headlines would be Trump puts hard-working scientists out of work.
It’s pretty unlikely the presidents visit wensday is in response to media criticism Tuesday. Even if you ignore how long the flight time is, the head of the secret service would have resigned in protest if Trump has ordered a visit to Iraq without prior security measures.
NBC criticized Trump for not visiting a war zone this year at Christmas, while Obama by contrast visited troops in Hawaii each year around Christmas time.
Big difference between Hawaii and Iraq, no? What a brave dirt bag you are Zerobama.
This is clearly another sign of how unstable Trump is. Barack “Profiles in Lack of Courage” Obama would never have inconvenienced himself to do something this foolish. And look at the way the stock market reacted — down (oops, I mean up) another 1,000 points. /s
Let me guess…
Media: Trump only did it because we said something!
Soledad O’Brien tried that one on Twitter in response to an idiotic tweet from the twit Alyssa Milano..
Shaming him seems to work.
Brit Hume put her in her place…
Yes, Ma’am. Trump read this tweet when it was posted and time-traveled himself back to yesterday and flew to Iraq. Genius take.
Obama the laughable ass clown lauded for fake visits to those on hardship tours in HI … he was and is a pos