WEB DESK
US President Donald Trump made a surprise Christmas visit to U.S. troops in Iraq on Wednesday (December 26), his first trip to a conflict zone nearly two years after he came to power and days after announcing a pullout of American troops from neighboring Syria.
Air Force One touched down at the Al Asad Air Base west of Baghdad after an overnight flight from Washington with first lady Melania Trump, a small group of aides and Secret Service agents, and a pool of reporters. He stayed for a little more than three hours.
“We’re going to have a (border) wall. We’re going to have safety. We need safety for our country, even from this standpoint. We have terrorists coming in. We have the terrorists also coming in from the southern border because you know why? It was always the easiest,” he said.
.@FLOTUS Melania and I were honored to visit our incredible troops at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq. GOD BLESS THE U.S.A.! pic.twitter.com/rDlhITDvm1
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2018
He further added, “technology is bells and whistles. You have to have a wall, you have to have protection. But we have in addition to drones, in addition to human trafficking, in addition to mass numbers of illegals who are coming in — many of whom are criminals, you saw that, 618 so far that we found; in some cases very serious criminals, in some cases murderers. You saw that yourselves, it was on your cameras for everybody to see. — Um, we need a wall. So when you say ‘how long is it going to take?’ When are they going to say that we need border security? When are the Democrats going to say — Don’t forget, the Democrats all agreed that you need a wall until I wanted it. Once I wanted it, they didn’t agree.”
Trump has drawn fire from some in the U.S. military for not having visited U.S. troops in conflict zones since taking office in January 2017, particularly after he canceled a trip to a World War One cemetery in France last month due to rain.
Meanwhile a meeting between Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi and US President Donald Trump has been cancelled. The Iraqi government today said in a statement that a disagreement on the organisation of the meeting led to it being replaced by a telephone conversation.
The statement added that during the call, Abdul Mahdi and Trump discussed the developments in the region, especially in the light of the US decision to pull out forces from Syria. The leaders also talked about cooperation in fighting Islamic State.