For liberal media, Trump's visit to US troops in Iraq can't go uncriticized: Today's talker

Marking his first trip to a combat zone, President Donald Trump made a surprise visit Wednesday to Al Asad Air Base, west of Baghdad. He and first lady Melania Trump left the Washington area late Christmas night.

Trump's Iraq visit flips script on his biased opponents

By Tony Shaffer

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump spent the day after Christmas in Iraq visiting U.S. troops. After facing criticism for not visiting the troops on Christmas by multiple mainstream media outlets, when news of his trip broke it actually became another opportunity for the media to criticize the president. Really?

The visit counters the false narrative that the liberal media and anti-Trump politicians have been working to construct about our commander in chief. Instead of admitting to their error, they attack him for the visit.

Although the narrative-building has been going on for weeks, it kicked into high gear after Trump’s announcement that the Americans embedded in Syria’s brutal civil war would be coming home to their families. Interventionist voices exploded in protest, condemning the president for avoiding an open-ended military entanglement. But already we have observed mission creep in the U.S.-Syria entanglement; another meandering military expedition is not in the interests of the United States or our allies.

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NBC News reported that he was the "first president since 2002 not to visit troops at Christmastime." But that suggests he had never visited troops, which is entirely fake news. Not only did President Trump visit wounded American service members at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center before Christmas last year, as the report acknowledges, but on the same day the NBC report was published, the president also began his pre-planned trip to Iraq. Others openly wondered whether the president wasn't visiting troops because of "cowardice or indifference."

The president’s visit made fools of these critics. The troops’ enthusiastic welcome of their commander in chief and the Trumps' Christmastime visit shows that the president cares first and foremost for the safety and well-being of the young Americans we rely on to protect us. And the president's foreign policy decisions show he is far more concerned about the price of war — and of individual sacrifice — than his recent predecessors.

President Trump is only willing to put those young Americans in harm’s way if it’s necessary to protect the American homeland and achieve clearly defined victories abroad. That is the lesson from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with its thousands of American dead and tens of thousands of wounded warriors.

Far from the detached, uncaring leader that the president’s detractors have imagined because he disagrees with the establishment's hawkish foreign policy, Trump knows of the hardship that endless deployments inflict on our troops. Hopefully, his and Mrs. Trump’s visit to Iraq has helped alleviate their burdens just a little this holiday season.

And to Trump's critics in the media: Better luck purveying false news in the new year.

Army Reserve Lieutenant Colonel Tony Shaffer is a retired senior intelligence operations officer and acting president of the London Center for Policy Research. He is a member of Donald Trump's 2020 advisory board. Follow him on Twitter @T_S_P_O_O_K_Y.

What others are saying

Samantha Vinograd, CNN: "He can certainly check the box that he physically made it to Iraq but … the president seems to have confused in some way this troop visit with a campaign rally by raising things like the border wall. ... There was a lot of gaslighting about what U.S. forces are doing in other theaters and less of a focus, frankly, on the ongoing stabilization mission and counterterrorism mission that the forces in Iraq are performing.”

USA TODAY, editorial: "The trip was as overdue as it was welcome. Donald Trump, who avoided military service during the Vietnam War, was nearly two years into his presidency without having visited service members in harm’s way. This was in stark contrast to predecessors George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who each made several trips to Iraq and Afghanistan. ... For Trump to take time away from his own holiday at home to visit with combat-deployed troops reminds them that America hasn’t forgotten. Politics aside, what's important is the simple fact that he showed up."

Norm Eisen, Twitter: "Trump managed on one short trip to lie about the troops’ pay increase, to lead them to violate the rule against political activity by signing his campaign gear and to expose the identity of Navy SEALs, perhaps endangering their lives. I’d say it's a wash at best."

What our readers are saying

There really is no hope for Donald Trump, but finally he does something that gives the appearance that he cares. Small steps, folks, small steps.

— John Waters

Welcome home, Mr. President, and thank you for going. I've already heard the talking heads bashing you for either going or not going soon enough. Nothing this president does will ever be accepted by the left, the media, Hollywood or the professional politicians.

— Garth Hogan

As usual, Trump had to make everything about himself. Absolutely tone-deaf — he could care less about the troops. This was just a photo/publicity op for him.

— Norma Gonzalez

Liberals who complained that Trump never visited the troops will now complain about the cost of the trip.

— Jon Gilbert

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: For liberal media, Trump's visit to US troops in Iraq can't go uncriticized: Today's talker