President Trump gave a shoutout to the troops Thursday shortly after returning from a surprise visit to a U.S. military base in Iraq.
“Just returned from visiting our troops in Iraq and Germany. One thing is certain, we have incredible people representing our Country - people that know how to win!” Mr. Trump tweeted.
He arrived at the White House early Thursday after a whirlwind trip to Al Asad Air Base west of Baghdad.
Accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, the president departed Christmas night and arrived Wednesday in Iraq.
It was Mr. Trump’s first visit to a war zone as commander in chief.
In a speech to service members at the base, Mr. Trump thanked them for helping to nearly eliminating the Islamic State or ISIS territorial caliphate in the region, which he said allowed him to last week order the withdraw of the 2,000 U.S. troops in neighboring Syria.
SEE ALSO: Donald Trump makes surprise visit to U.S. troops in Iraq
“Two years ago, when I became president, they were a very dominant group — very dominant. Today they are not so dominant anymore,” he said to cheers from the troops.
The order to pull out of Syria was met with criticism on both sides of the aisle for being premature and putting in jeopardy allied Kurdish forces in the region.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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