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President Trump Hosts a Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration, Sep. 30, 2026

September 30, 2026 · The White House · 0:58:50

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

President Donald Trump hosted a Hispanic Heritage Month celebration at the White House, telling guests they would be the first “people of consequence” to step on the new ballroom floor and crediting Hispanic voters with a majority of their votes in his election. Before turning to the celebration, he announced that “the last American forces are leaving Iraq,” declaring the end of Operation Inherent Resolve — the mission launched in 2014 — and praising Iraq’s new prime minister, whom he said he had endorsed in the election.

The President compared the departure with the Afghanistan withdrawal, saying coalition forces and equipment left Erbil Air Base in an orderly way with all equipment taken, and recounted the costs of the 23-year Iraq presence as he stated them: more than 4,500 American soldiers lost and over 31,000 injured. He also reviewed the Venezuela operation for the audience, saying it lasted 148 minutes with no American soldiers lost.

Why it matters

The Iraq announcement closes the longest-running U.S. combat deployment of the era and is a headline foreign-policy marker for the administration’s second term — delivered, notably, as the headline of a domestic celebration rather than a standalone address. The foreign-policy record it belongs to is owned by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, whose portfolios this site tracks.

Scoreboard watch

This is a candidate item for the weekly scoreboard: the announced completion of the Iraq withdrawal. What the scoreboard will check is the confirmed departure of the remaining forces and the status of the U.S.–Iraq relationship that follows it.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Hosts a Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration,” Sep. 30, 2026 (official upload, embedded above). Remarks as delivered at the event.