TRENTON -- The head of the New Jersey State Police made President Donald Trump an honorary state trooper during a private meeting at the White House earlier this year, presenting Trump with an unassigned badge number: 45.

The honor, presented to the nation's 45th president by Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes and members of his command staff, was meant to thank Trump for supporting law enforcement, Fuentes said.

But it raised eyebrows among some members of the ranks, who thought it inappropriate to assign a badge to someone who never graduated the academy, sources said. Those sources did not want to be named criticizing command staff.

"The New Jersey State Police 'Roll Call' roster will forever reflect badge number 45 being honorably issued to President Donald J. Trump," Fuentes wrote in an order formalizing the ceremonial designation.

To assign the badge number to the commander-in-chief, the colonel took an unused slot from a failed cadet.

State troopers receive a sequential badge number assignment after graduating the academy, Fuentes wrote in his order, but recruits in the first-ever State Police class in 1921 were given theirs upon entering.

According to the State Police website, 34 would-be troopers from the 116-recruit class didn't pass muster.

"The trooper issued badge (number) 45 never graduated from the academy and that badge number has never been issued to a member of the New Jersey State Police," Fuentes wrote.

The gift, which included an "authentic" State Police hat badge and pocket badge, was presented to the president during a White House visit marking National Peace Officers Memorial Day on May 15, but was not publicly announced.

A photo from the meeting shows Fuentes standing alongside Trump and two members of his command staff, Lieutenant Colonels Patrick Callahan and Jeffrey Mottley.

A law enforcement source sent a copy of the photo and Fuentes' order to NJ Advance Media last week after it was shared online among members of the State Troopers Fraternal Association in early September.

The State Police triangle has in the past been a closely guarded honor. In 2002, a one-man recruit class was created in order to assign a badge number and uniform to then-Superintendent Joseph Santiago, the only State Police superintendent who never served as a trooper.

The attorney general at the time, David Samson, later stripped Santiago of the badge number and uniform amid a rash of criticism from troopers and their union.

Through a spokesman, Fuentes declined to answer questions about the honor, issuing a statement calling it "a personal memento in appreciation of the support the President has displayed to the New Jersey State Police and law enforcement throughout our nation."

The colonel would not say whether such a gesture has been extended to other presidents or dignitaries.

Fuentes said the visit "held special meaning due to the fact that we were in Washington, D.C. to witness three of our fallen troopers' names being added to the Law Enforcement Officer memorial wall."

Trump has also publicly recognized an issue Fuentes and the union have long championed: the extradition of Joanne Chesimard, one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives who escaped from prison after she was convicted in the killing of a state trooper. Chesimard, who now goes by Assata Shakur, maintains her innocence and holds political asylum in Cuba.

In June, Trump said the Cuban government needed to return Chesimard and other fugitives before trade relations between the country and the U.S. could normalize -- a reversal of policy from President Barack Obama's administration.

Fuentes publicly criticized the Obama administration last year for leaving out the extradition of Chesimard as a condition of lifting U.S. embargoes.

Chris Burgos, the STFA's current president, said it was Fuentes' "prerogative" to add Trump to the official roll call, calling the badge assignment an "honorarium" and saying there was "no comparison" between the gift and the Santiago controversy.

Burgos said he was told Trump "requested the gift be displayed in the Roosevelt Room for all to see."

S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.