Trump accidentally posted Identities of a U.S Navy Seal Team

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The U.S President Donald Trump has been looking for ways to distract the public from his failure to build the wall, and a trip to Iraq, with the government shutdown. It seems like a publicity slam dunk for his image at a critical time. The Trump administration has goodwill among veterans and their families that he may have picked up from the trip has been undermined by the fact that he seems to have revealed the identities of a covert Navy SEAL team.

Trump posted a video on Twitter showing the team’s faces. A security expert James LaPorta said that it is a violation of operational security. Trump flew out to Iraq on Christmas evening and landed this morning. He visited the Al-Asad Air Base outside of Baghdad, where he spoke to a group of about 100 assembled U.S troops. The majority of troops were special operations forces. The video was posted on the president’s Twitter account after he left Iraqi airspace, seems to feature several U.S. Navy SEALs who are in Iraq on covert missions.

.@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

The president has the power to declassify information, which means that posting the video is not a crime. However, revealing the identities of currently serving special forces will be a breach of protocol and could endanger the troops, according to former and current Department of Defense officials. A former U.S. Navy intelligence specialist Malcolm Nance said, “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”.