He did address the troops for about 20 minutes. I think what we need to find out next here we have a little bit coming out from reports from reuters, as well. Number one, the president is not going to withdraw from iraq. Thats something he said they are going to stay there. He thinks the world will come around and the rest of the International Community to his decision to withdraw the 2,000 troops from syria. He said that the current or soon to be acting secretary of defense will be there for some time. The president s next stop is going to be the air base in germany about five hours away on the plane. So far the head lines, president making an unannounced trip to iraq. Stay with us if you will. I want to bring in hally jackson. What can you tell us about the trip . Significant moment for President Trump given he had come under fire for not having visited troops. At this point in his presidency barack obama had been to afghanistan. A couple of things to note here. The president is going to make another stop. He is going to stop at an air base in germany on his way back home. We are told we have learned from our cleegz, the small pool of reporters traveling with the president , a little more color about this trip. The president was greeted by a standing ovation as he walked in. He and the first lady went around taking selfies, posing, signing autographs for troops there. As far as the content of the 20minute speech to troops and the question and answer session from the press really focus on the president defending his decision to withdraw troops from syria, adition th decision that the resignation of jim mattis. That was one of the straws that broke the camels back along with the president asking for a plan on withdrawing troops from afghanistan. He is saying that he has no plans at all to withdraw troops from iraq. There are a couple of other notable pieces. The president was asked if he had concerns about visiting the country. He said he did have concerns about the institution of the president according to the pool and concerns about the first lady, as well. We know that the president visited with the u. S. Ambassador to iraq and spent time with troops in the dining hall. It is a moment for the president on this holiday break, something he had come under fire for for not having done. The president has visited troops generally. We were on the trip when he was overseas in asia. The president , of course, visiting walter reed here in washington, visiting troops at different bases around this country, as well. This is the first time he is at a war zone. What you hear from folks and experts in the field is how important it is for troops like you see in these pictures to see the president , their commander in chief come and give them that backup. So we do expect to get some of the video from this. There are people with video cameras traveling with the president. That probably wont come out for a little bit. As you know from your travelers it is tricky. Why didnt anybody know about this until the president landed . That is not unusual. You know this from your time covering this building. It is operational for security reasons and for safety reasons. They do want to keep this secret just to protect the commander in chief and the first lady when they are overseas. Nobody is trying to keep anything from the america public. Some people were saying they didnt have Internet Access so couldnt put this out. There were times when i was reporting from the white house and couldnt get internet connectivity. Thanks to both of you. I know you will update us when you get more information. It will continue to come out. The visit does come as we have been talking about after that widespread criticism that trump had not yet visited troops in a combat zone. I want to talk more about this with retired four star general. White house correspondent from pbs news hour and some of the folks that you know are on that trip with the president. I want tostart with you, general. This is President Trumps first visit to an active theater. Its interesting that he is going to a place where he has been very vocal and critical about the reasons that the United States got into iraq in the first place. I covered jeb bush on the campaign trail. He went after jeb bush because of his brothers decisions on iraq. As you look at this trip, both from the perspective of the troops on the ground, but also the military commanders that he had a chance to talk to, let me get your take from your military background about what you think about this firstever trip to an active theater. I think it is good news, not just to show the flag. It has become an embarrassment the fact that the president had not visited the active war zones. Putting that behind him is terrific. Afghanistan is too dangerous for a president to go into in my judgment. So iraq is a perfect outcome. While he is there he will get an unvarnished opportunity to listen to the people commanding our forces not just in iraq but also in syria and elsewhere in the region. I think he will come back with a better on the ground grasp of the import of his unilateral decisions to exit syria with all of our forces immediately and potentially to cut the foot print in afghanistan. I think it deserves to be said, you can form a rational argument to pull troops out of syria and use just air power and covert action. You can form a rational argument to cut the footprint in afghanistan. You cant form a rational argument in impulsive, unilateral publically announced withdrawals without coordinating with our allies. Military decision by tweet which obviously has rattled even some people within the military. So if youre there and im sure that you have had these kiends f conversations. If you are there and the president is insuring you i am not taking troops out of iraq, is there an ongoing nervousness not just because the president has been known to change miz mind about things that he says, but also because you just had the defense secretary decide that he was going to leave at the end of february because he disagreed with the syria decision and had general disagreement about the way the president has handled many of the decisions, but also when the president says dont bother staying until the end of february, you are done at the end of the year. Well, look, the president of the United States regardless of who he or she might be is an enormously popular figure with the enlisted force of the armed forces. Im sure their moral is raised by having the president and melannia there. I think the abrupt firing in which secretary mattis was handled with his brilliant Public Service letter of resignation, the Senior Leadership i think doesnt know what to make of all of this. They will remained disciplined and loyal to the commander in chief as they should be under the constitution. I think they are worried. They see our allies in disarray. By the way, pulling out of syria on short notice, you are telling the Kurdish Forces we are foi h fighting with that we are gone puts these forces at risk. This is a dangerous operation retrograde. I dont think anybody knows what to make out of all of this. They will try to puzzle through it. Shanahan is a bright, capable, technically competent guy. He is certainly an honest man. We dont have a crisis going on, but there are some nervous folks, our allies and the National Leadership and National Security. And shanahan may be around for a while. Do we know anything at this point this is all very new incoming information that the president made this trip and left late last night. Do we know what led to it . Obviously, there has been criticism as we have all pointed out at the president for not going in theater two years in. He skipped that Cemetery Service marking world war i when he was in france last month and took a lot of heat for that. He didnt go to Arlington National cemetery a couple of days later on veterans day. This isnt the first time the president has found himself under pressure. Why this . Why now . Do we know . What we know is that the president , this trip comes at a critical time in his presidency, the idea that the government is partially shut down and that people were openly questioning his decision to pull out of syria makes this a good time for him to go to iraq. There is this idea that President Trump not having gone to visit troops in a war zone was becoming to be a political embarrassment for him. There are generals and exmilitary people who are wondering for a president who talked about military service and about the idea of supporting the troops why he had not gone to visit them. I think this comes at a time when the president is dealing with people questioning the most important part of being president which is being commander in chief, the idea of keeping america safe and protecting america. The fact that he delivered the 20minute speech to troops in part saying he was not pulling them out and that he was going to be fighting isis in any way that he can and that they were going to be possibly the basis for fighting this in that region, he was really i think sending the message that while im pulling out of syria im not pulling out of the idea that we need to protect america and if that means being involved in wars and in combat zones abroad. The president has talked a lot about America First and this idea that we dont need to be supplementing and being the police of the world. He is also telling the troops now i see you, i understand what youre going through. I want to hear from you directly. This is a critical point because in 2019 he will deal with a house that is controlled by democrats. He is dealing with Robert Muellers possible report coming out. He will be deal wg moing with m his friends being indicted. The president needs a win here and political optics to be on the side in this case. Optics aside, as you look ahead and you see someone you know who is going to be at least for a while taking the place of general mattis as the defense secretary, you do have i think when you look at the ways in which president s fulfill their duties and symbolically how important these kinds of things can be, you have the president of the United States there we see a picture of him standing in front of the troops. We are waiting to hear what he said in the 20 minutes. In a very real sense, do you think he takes away anything from this that makes any difference or is this largely about the troops and the messaging to them . Well, certainly most importantly from a political standpoint both to domestic audience and the giant military force, 2. 1 million men and women in active guard and reserves, this is good messaging. There is no question about it. To visit the war zone puts behind them a political liability he has been trying to deal with. I also think, though, if he had an opportunity well find out more, to spend an hour or so with senior commanders in a closed environment listening to them directly, it will come away better informed. Some of the decisions that we have been seeing soming out of the white house on National Security had been based on an ignorant understanding of what is going on and the notion of abandoning our kurdish and arab allies in syria suddenly to the mercies of turk offensive operations, im not sure he got all that. So i think the trip is good news. Im glad he went. Im sure the troops appreciate it. Im glad melania went. I think that added a different tone to the visit. Hopefully some good will come out of it. I want to bring in courtney cuby. She joins me by phone. What can you tell us about the trip . I have to agree about the optics of bringing the first lady on this trip. I think it is fascinating. There is a lot of things about this that are very telling. They flew in to western, west of baghdad. It was historically during operation iraqy freedom it was the home of the marines. I can see from still photos coming out from the Wire Services that he definitely met with some marines and looked like they were marine Senior Officers although it is hard to tell who anyone was. That is the place where the birth place of the awakening nearly ten years ago in iraq, the beginning of the time where the war operation iraqy freedom turned around. It is interesting they did not go to baghdad. We dont know if they were flying on air force one. I expect it would not be allowed. Assad is a little less dangerous especially in flying in a blue and white airplane. I think its fascinating that he took First Lady Melania Trump with him for the optics of it. It is also very interesting not going into baghdad. The notes say he did meet with the u. S. Ambassador to iraq. Going into western iraq would mean he most likely wouldnt have the opportunity to meet with any of the iraqi leaders. So its a very interesting decision that they made to fly into there. The air base has a very interesting history for the u. S. Military there in iraq. It was one of the largest for a long time. It was the second largest during Operation Iraqi freedom. It was home to the marines. Going in the day after christmas and seeing these troops as soldiers and marineses there now who are away from their families for the holidays. The pictures are very striking. The Christmas Decorations and the standing ovation that the president got when he arrived. Courtney kube. Thank you. Your knowledge and expertise is always invaluable. Thanks to you. We appreciate it. Coming up, the secretary of Homeland Security has just commented about that second child who died while in the custody of customs and Border Patrol protection. We have breaking details coming up next. Big news on the Supreme Court. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg after her cancer surgery. How she is doing, an update on msnbc. Doing, an update on msnbc. Im ken jacobus and i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. I earn unlimited 2 cash back on everything i buy. And last year, i earned 36,000 in cash back. Which i used to offer Health Insurance to my employees. Whats in your wallet . Bring all the gifts for under the tree. And while youre at it. Bring the tree. Ford f150 bestinclass payload. Bestinclass towing. Built for the holidays. Hurry its the final days to get 0 financing for 72 months on ford f150. See your ford dealer today. Developing news on the two young Migrant Children who just this month died in the hands of u. S. Customs Homeland Security officials. Homeland security secretary just released this statement. It says that she is sending the coast guards medical team. She is asking for help from the pentagon. She is asking for help from the centers for Disease Control and adds that kids in their custody will get a thorough medical screening as early as possible, something that has not been happening. Her statement also included this line. Ouri issystem has been pushed t the breaking point by those who seek open borders. Here is what cbp says happened to the 8yearold child kpoo whoo dkpoo who died. A Border Patrol agent noticed the boy and sent him and his father to the hospital. The boy was diagnosed with a cold and a fever of 103. He was released although it is not clear whether he had the fever. About four hours later he was sent back to the same hospital. His death is under investigation. Jul julia, i want to start with this new statement that came from neilsen, growing pressure following the deaths of two Young Children being held in custody. She is right and you and i have talked about how the breaking point has been breached. What do you make of the fact that she is calling for help from the pentagon . Calling for help from the cdc and calling in the coast guard . A lot of these details were laid out to reporters this morning on a conference call. She is putting it in a different context especially as she is blaming some decisions by courts over how to protect imMigrant Children. Thats why the rules were put there. That is the thing she is calling for now. We need to start getting used to dhs calling for the department of defense to help enforce their policies. We have seen this sending troops to the border. We have heard that Defense Department funding could be used to pay for the wall. Now she is asking the department of defense to help in these Migrant Deaths particularly of the children. She now seems very aware of the answer to the question that she failed to answer last week before congress that there were six deaths of immigrants during fiscal year 2018 and that prior to this month there have been no deaths of children in the custody of customs and Border Protection. It is unclear whether or not she will get that help. Right now all of this is a request. A big thing that will have to happen internally within the department of home lland securi is how much space they make for the children. Right now a big problem that were seeing and we are seeing it play out fatally unfortunately in some circumstances is that they cant get them to i. C. E. Centers in time, said they are holding them way longer than they are supposed to in these facilities that are not made for adults to stay that long let alone children. I know you will keep us posted on the new developments. In the meantime, despite the president s demands, lawmakers are not expected to rueturn to the capitol tomorrow unless a deal is announced. The president is holding talks with lawmakers. Since saturday there has been no movement on the hill to find a solution to the standoff. House members have been told they do not expect members to return for votes. More with that with msnbcs garret. I just got a big note that you and frank thorp put out. We expect no major action on this shutdown tomorrow. We are already staring into the sixth day on the shutdown. Unless there is a brea