Twitter has erupted after Donald Trump’s #MakeAmericaGreatAgain tweet featured a picture of the Presidential hopeful, the american flag, some US$100 bills and a photo of Nazi SS soldiers.
In the bottom right hand corner, there is a photo of soldiers who are actually men dressed as the Waffen-SS, the notorious military wing of the Nazi SS.
The original photo can be found on photo site iStock. The image was taken at a World War II reenactment near Kent, England.
John Schindler, a former national security affairs professor at the US Naval War College, took to Twitter to complain about the tweet:
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
.@charles_gaba @MichaelNiemerg @realDonaldTrump they’re wearing Waffen-SS cuff titles, FFS…dude on left has late-war SS “dot” camo uniform
— 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
See also Waffen-SS tunic with unit cuff title & SS eagle on left arm, as in Trump pic https://t.co/b3pwWmdwHY pic.twitter.com/IdQlwcIebJ
— John Schindler (@20committee) July 14, 2015
A Trump campaign spokesperson blamed the whoopsie on an intern: “Mr Trump has been in Charlottesville, Virginia all day at the opening of a development. A young intern created and posted the image and did not see the very faded figures within the flag of the stock photo.
“The intern apologised and immediately deleted the tweet.”
The tweet and the Facebook post have since been deleted, but the internet lives on.