President Donald Trump posed with members of a Navy SEAL special ops team in Iraq this week, then reportedly exposed information about them on Twitter that’s usually classified.

The location of such a deployment, as well as the identities or identifiable faces of service members, are usually classified, Defense Department sources told Newsweek magazine.

A president has the power to declassify such information, but Trump’s exposure of the team online was apparently inadvertent, USA Today reported.

According to the pool report of the president’s trip to Iraq, Trump asked the chaplain of SEAL Team 5 to pose for a picture with him. Trump and first lady Melania Trump also posed for a photo with several other members of the team. The president later posted a video of the meeting to his Twitter account, revealing the faces of the team members and noting the presence of the team at the al-Asad Airbase in western Iraq:

.@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 Office of the Secretary of Defense told NBC that no rules were violated by Trump’s tweets.

“The special operators voluntarily participated in this open press event,” the office stated. “There was no security violation.”

But an unnamed Defense Department official and other sources told Newsweek that the “deployments of special operation forces — including Navy SEALs — are almost always classified events, as to protect those men and women that are on the front lines of every overt and covert conflict.”

The official also said that even in the event of special ops demonstrations for congressional delegations, service members’ faces are either covered or “digitally blurred” in film and photos to shield information from the public.

The official couldn’t recall a similar event with another president in which the team’s identities weren’t shielded.

Retired U.S. Navy Admiral James Stavridis said on MSNBC Thursday that he was surprised by the photo of the Navy Seal chaplain.

“It’s important he’s a Seal,” Stavridris said. “That’s a part of the force that is historically supposed to be very, very cloistered, very much in the shadows.”

Retired U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Malcolm Nance, who now serves as an intelligence consultant for U.S. special operations forces, told NBC that the SEALs’ identities should not have been revealed.

“The fact is they are a special operations force in a combat zone with a combat role. The reason their identities are protected is in case of capture,” Nance said.

The president’s actions sparked anger on Twitter:

While I can appreciate you finally visiting troops (my son serves in the United States Army), I find it unbelievable you would reveal the faces of US Navy Seals in your photo op video. Surely you must know that their identities must be held private for their and others security. — Lisa Roar Kennedy (@lmkenn3) December 27, 2018

Every single member of the primary special operations force featuring in this video is now both *identifiable* and locatable. This was a publicity stunt for you - but for the price is higher for them.



Let’s hope nothing happens to any of them. Please take it DOWN. — Dr Belinda Barnet (@manjusrii) December 27, 2018

Nice bullseye on our troops! — tim p whatley (@ttwhatley) December 27, 2018

Loose tweets sink fleets. — Christian Reilly (@Gnadenputin) December 28, 2018

Did you just EXPOSE the seal team!!!!!!!!!??????????????????????? — Jennifer Warren (@JennRetired) December 28, 2018

National security and safety of armed forces should be a top priority. Your actions are unsafe and reckless. You have advisors for a reason, use them and take advice from people who came before you. — Caleb Frey (@CalebFreyTattoo) December 27, 2018

Critics have slammed Trump’s visit to Iraq to meet with American troops and accused him of politicizing the military. During his visit, Trump called out Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for not supporting his border wall, pushed his isolationist policies and signed MAGA campaign hats.

“It’s like the politicization of the judicial branch,” said retired three-star Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertiling per The New York Times. “He has to understand that there exist some audiences that should not be addressed as part of his base because they are not. It’s a violation of protocol by the president.”