President Donald Trump paid a surprise visit Wednesday to a sprawling military base in western Iraq. Trump was joined by first lady Melania Trump, as the president posed for selfies with troops and autographed red “Make America Great Again” hats. It was Trump’s first visit to an active war zone since he took office nearly two years ago. During a speech to the troops, Trump defended his plans to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria and about half of the nearly 7,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

President Donald Trump: “America shouldn’t be doing the fighting for every nation on Earth, not being reimbursed, in many cases, at all. If they want us to do the fighting, they also have to pay a price, and sometimes that’s also a monetary price, so we’re not the suckers of the world. We’re no longer the suckers, folks. And people aren’t looking at us as suckers.”

But Trump said he has no plans to withdraw the more than 5,000 U.S. troops who remain in Iraq. During his brief trip, Trump did not meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi or any other Iraqi officials. In a statement, a bloc of Iraqi parliamentarians condemned Trump’s surprise visit as a “flagrant and clear violation of diplomatic norms.”