by january 1st two months earlier than planned after clashing with the president over his announcement last week to pull all u.s. troops out of syria. his resignation, of course, after that. jessica dean is live from the white house. how did this trip come about? >> reporter: good evening, kate. we are hearing bits and pieces. the president saying today in a iraq that three or four weeks ago they started planning trip. they had to cancel he said a couple for security reasons because people were finding out about them, he said. we do know that they left washington under the cover of darkness, flew overnight to iraq. you heard the president talking about some of those security measures. the first lady, of course, accompanying him on this trip. earlier today here at the white house people did start to notice it was very quiet here, also no tweeting from the president. that was another indication to some people that maybe there was something going on. once the president landed there in iraq, reporters who were