In war-zone blunder, Donald Trump tweets video revealing secret US Navy Seal team in Iraq
- The whereabouts of US special operations forces are usually a closely guarded secret
- But because the US president has broad authority to declassify information, Donald Trump’s tweet is unlikely to have broken any rules
US President Donald Trump appears to have inadvertently unmasked a Navy Seal team during his short visit to a US base in Iraq this week.
Ordinarily, the whereabouts of special operations forces are a closely held secret. In the rare instances when they are filmed while in a combat zone, their faces and other identifying features are usually blurred out.
But after his lightning trip to Al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq on Wednesday, his first to a war zone as president, Trump tweeted a video of him posing for photos with US troops, shaking their hands and signing mementos.
In one scene, he is giving a thumbs up alongside a group of what appear to be US Navy Seals.
How Donald Trump gave away his secret war zone trip
According to the pool report of the event, held in a dining hall at the base, a man called Kyu Lee told Trump he was the chaplain for Seal Team Five.
Lee recalled Trump telling him: “Hey, in that case, let’s take a picture.”