Donald Trump went to Iraq to offer holiday thanks and wishes to America’s troops. But he also signed his share of red ‘Make America Great Again’ hats, politicizing the military in a way uncommon in America.

Defense Department policy says that “active duty personnel may not engage in partisan political activities and all military personnel should avoid the inference that their political activities imply or appear to imply DoD sponsorship, approval, or endorsement of a political candidate, campaign, or cause.”

Politicizing events that feature men and women in uniform “puts the soldiers – truthfully, all of the military personnel – in a very bad position,” said retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, “because the military has regulations against doing exactly that.”

A pool reporter on the scene noted that Trump also ‘signed an embroidered patch that read “TRUMP 2020″‘ – a seemingly direct endorsement.

Hertling, who formerly served as a lieutenant general and the commanding general of U.S. Army Europe and the Seventh Army, was highly critical of how Trump handled the troop visit.

“What presidents don’t do is politicize the event, and unfortunately as we saw some of the commentary by the president, that’s exactly what he did,” Hertling said. “It puts the soldiers—truthfully, all of the military personnel—in a very bad position,” he added, “because the military has regulations against doing exactly that.”

Retired Rear Admiral John Kirby, a former Defense Department spokesman, said a hat bearing Trump’s slogan “is a campaign item, and it’s completely inappropriate for the troops to do this. Not supposed to do this, and I’m sure that their boss is seeing that. They’re not going to be happy about it.”

Kirby claimed Trump “has to take some ownership of this too. Every time he’s around military audiences, he tends to politicize it.”

Trump falsely told service members at Al Asad Air Base that he’d gotten them their first pay raise in 10 years, saying it was more than 10 percent.

In reality, service members have received a pay raise every year over the past decade, ranging from 1 to 3.9 percent. The raise for 2019 is just 2.6 percent, or about 0.2 percent more than 2018.

Trump also again suggested that ISIS had been defeated in Syria, defending his decision to withdraw 2,000 troops and U.S. military efforts in the country.

But experts, politicians, allies and some within Trump’s own administration have pushed back, pointing out that sizable pockets of the extremist organization still operate there.

Many have also raised concerns that the U.S. withdrawal will embolden the group.

Retired Major General James “Spider” Marks, said that Trump should have focused solely on the troops.

“Make it about them,” he said, “don’t put the spotlight on you.”

A 79-year-old federal law called the Hatch Act prohibits using an official office for political purposes, but it explicitly carves out exemptions for the president and vice president.

Still, according to Air Force Lt. Col Reggie Yager, deputy director of legal policy for the Pentagon’s office of under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, the president should be concerned that he’s encouraging the rank and file to break their own rules.