In an apparent response to increasing questions about why he had not yet visited service members in combat zones, President Donald Trump on Wednesday made an unannounced trip to Iraq.

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, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders announced via Twitter on Wednesday afternoon.

Trump during his Thanksgiving golfing vacation hinted he could soon visit a combat zone, but the White House had not made public any plans. As has become normal operating procedure for such visits, the White House disclosed his whereabouts only after Air Force One safely landed in Iraq and Trump was on the ground at al-Asad Air Base northwest of Baghdad.

Trump told service members gathered for his visit that he has no plans to withdraw troops from Iraq, and intends to use U.S. forces there to strike the Islamic State terrorist group if necessary. If we see something happening with ISIS that we dont like, we can hit them so fast and so hard, they really wont know what the hell happened, he said.

Credit where credit is due after two years, dozens of excuses and tons of public pressure, Donald Trump has finally visited Americans deployed to a combat zone, said Will Fischer, an Iraq War veteran with the liberal group VoteVets. But, make no mistake, he had to be forced into doing what is right and what his job is.

Air Force One apparently left Joint Base Andrews at about midnight, passing over the U.K. and then Hungary en route to an after-dark landing in Iraq, according to amateur photographers and hobbyist trackers of military aircraft.