NBC and other far-left outlets slammed President Donald Trump on Tuesday for being the first president since 2002 not to visit our troops around Christmastime. The “news” spread like wildfire online by the typical anti-Trump brigade.
But as has been the case so often with the mainstream media and Trump-haters (but I repeat myself), the report wasn’t true.
President Trump not only called troops to wish them a Merry Christmas on Tuesday, he and First Lady Melania Trump took a secret trip to Iraq on Christmas Day so they could greet those serving our country in person.
“Trump’s trip was shrouded in secrecy. Air Force One flew overnight from Washington, landing at an airbase west of Baghdad under the cover of darkness Wednesday evening,” reported the Associated Press on Wednesday.
“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,” tweeted White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
CBS News’ White House correspondent Mark Knoller noted that it’s customary for such a trip to be “highly secretive” and closed off to the press. “A presidential trip to Iraq is a highly secret movement. No advance notice to press other than press pool going along. Air Force One is boarded in privacy in hangar and departs under cover of darkness. All on board instructed to pull down window shades and surrender cell phones,” Knoller wrote on Twitter.
Trump signed autographs and posed in selfies with the troops.
The NBC report claimed Trump “broke from a recent tradition of actually visiting troops and wounded warriors. … By staying home on Tuesday, Trump became the first president since 2002 who didn’t visit military personnel around Christmastime.”
The following day, they added the following embarrassing editor’s note: “On Wednesday, a day after this article was published, President Trump made a surprise visit to Iraq to greet U.S. troops. It was his first presidential visit to a combat zone.”