On Tuesday, Donald Trump (or, should we say, Donald Trump's Twitter account), tweeted one more plug for the GOP presidential candidate's campaign.
An all-caps caption declared: "We need real leadership. We need results. Let's put the U.S. back into business!"
Except, there was a problem. As Twitter users quickly pointed out, the soldiers in the bottom-right of the image were not American. They weren't even from an Allied military. They were German World War II soldiers.
.@realDonaldTrump has deleted the tweet (finally) but here's the pic, Waffen-SS very clear at bottom pic.twitter.com/Kv1GsdKQkw
— John Schindler (@20committee) July 14, 2015
Twitter sleuths set about linking the image to a stock photo of reenactors in what appears to be Nazi uniforms.
Found @realDonaldTrump's german soldier stock image here (searched "world war II soldiers")http://t.co/GKkcNTUKpm pic.twitter.com/ysWGeePZIr
— Reed F. Richardson (@reedfrich) July 14, 2015
This former professor at the Naval War College appeared convinced.
100% certain Waffen-SS ID on the Trump pic....if media want an explainer how I am certain, ask me https://t.co/b3pwWmdwHY
— John Schindler (@20committee) July 14, 2015
Notice the late-war Waffen-SS "dot" camo tunic, with SS eagle on left arm as in the Trump pic https://t.co/b3pwWmdwHY pic.twitter.com/ulScwicbZU
— John Schindler (@20committee) July 14, 2015
And the left-of-center Web site Mother Jones made this handy GIF:
Donald Trump just tweeted a campaign ad featuring Nazi uniforms on an American flag http://t.co/YNh6HpOwT3 pic.twitter.com/pavd5fYMPi
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) July 14, 2015
Trump's original tweet was swiftly deleted and the Trump campaign eventually pinned the error on an intern, as one journalist reported:
Trump campaign responds: An intern did it. pic.twitter.com/oZBJAtwffl
— Eric Geller (@ericgeller) July 14, 2015
Trump is hardly alone in making these gaffes. Earlier this year, it appeared a video put out by Rick Perry's political action committee, touting the former Texas governor's knowledge of military history, used a stock image of a Russian warship instead of an American vessel.
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