In a special ops faux pas during his first trip to an active combat zone, President Donald Trump seems to have inadvertently revealed the faces and whereabouts of a Navy Seal team in Iraq via tweet.
.@FLOTUS Melania and I were honored to visit our incredible troops at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq. GOD BLESS THE U.S.A.! pic.twitter.com/rDlhITDvm1
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2018
According to a Wednesday Newsweek report, pictures and footage of currently deployed special ops teams are usually edited to obscure the members’ identities, due to the sensitive nature of their jobs.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Operational security is the most important aspect of personnel deployments. The real names, faces, and identities, of personnel involved in special operations or activities, are usually a closely held secret in a combat zone,” former U.S. Navy intelligence specialist Malcolm Nance told Newsweek. “Revealing them casually, through an unusual media exposure even if it’s the commander in chief, would prove a propaganda boom if any of this personnel are detained by a hostile government or captured by a terrorist group. There would be no denying who you are and what you do.”
This would not be the first time Trump broke safety protocols. In October, the New York Times reported that Trump’s refusal to give up his iPhone has caused a huge security risk, providing ample opportunity for spies from adversarial China or Russia to listen in on important calls.
