Trump pays a visit to troops in Iraq
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump made a surprise visit Wednesday to a U.S. airbase in Iraq to meet with American troops and commanders, and to dispel growing complaints that he had never visited a war zone in his first two years in office.
Trump, accompanied by his wife, Melania, left a partially shuttered government in Washington just after midnight, flew all day and landed in the dark at the joint U.S.-Iraqi Asad Air Base west of Baghdad around 7 p.m. local time.
Asked why he came, Trump told reporters before a meeting with military leaders on base: "It's a place I have been talking about for many years - many, many years. I was talking about it as a civilian."
