NEWS: Donald Trump tweeted (then deleted) a promotional campaign image that included Nazi soldiers.
On 14 July 2015, rumors circulated that presidential hopeful Donald Trump tweeted the above image to promote his campaign. (The URLs widely circulated as the original tweet/s lead to a error message.)
The tweet was sent at 2:04 PM EST:
Not long after that, Twitter history buffs pointed out an unusual detail in the graphic — the soldiers feature in the lower right-hand corner appeared to be not American troops, but Nazi-era Waffen SS soldiers:
@realDonaldTrump @20committee are those troops in the bottom Wehrmacht?! #falseflag
— Michael Niemerg (@MichaelNiemerg) July 14, 2015
HOLY SHIT! Hello media -- Donald Trump just put Waffen-SS troops in a campaign pic. Seriously, I swear. https://t.co/BSFNuNrK6R
— 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
.@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
Users captured and enhanced the image for clarification purposes:
The tweet in question was widely discussed on social media sites, but its purported deletion makes it impossible to definitively verify. However, a number of replies and retweets sent to the Twitter account @realDonaldTrump display Twitter's stock error message, suggesting that both critics and supporters responded to a tweet that indeed no longer exists:
“@realDonaldTrump: #MakeAmericaGreatAgain https://t.co/9OmS3j2bja”
Holy hell Those are SS troops in that photo
— Patrick (@patricksp71) July 14, 2015
On the afternoon of 14 July 2015, a CNN reporter obtained clarification from Trump's camp about the deleted tweet:
Trump Org EVP Michael Cohen says an intern accidentally posted questionable photo; apologized and immediately deleted
— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) July 14, 2015
British Photographer George Cairns told Mother Jones that he snapped the image at a WWII reenactment several years ago. Cairns said the mix-up wasn't the first time the photograph was inadvertently used for a campaign, adding that "for some reason, politicians seem to be downloading Nazis."