Donald Trump Uses Nazi-Uniformed Soldiers in Campaign Tweet

By Josh Nathan-Kazis July 14, 2015

A campaign image tweeted by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump appears to include photos of historical reenactors in World War II-era German uniforms.

The composite image contains a picture of Trump, a pile of hundred-dollar bills, the White House, and the soldiers, all seen through a waving American flag, over the text, “We need real leadership. We need results. Let’s put the U.S. back into business!”

The marching soldiers seem to be wearing WW II-era German uniforms. Trump has since deleted the tweet, but you can see a screenshot below:

John R. Schindler, a former professor at the U.S. Naval War College, appears to have been the first Twitter user to press the point. “Troops at bottom are Waffen-SS, wearing late-WW2 dot pattern camo, SS eagle is visible on the left arms,” Schindler wrote.

Twitter user @LeftyBollocks appeared to identify the stock image of historical reenactors used to create the composite. The image, titled “Marching soldiers,” is tagged with keywords “Fascism” and German Culture,” but carries no specific description. The reenactors appear to be wearing Nazi-style uniforms.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

UPDATE: A Donald Trump spokesperson told The Daily Dot that Trump had nothing to do with the image and blamed it on a young 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 apologized and immediately deleted the tweet.”

Josh Nathan-Kazis is a staff writer for the Forward. He covers charities and politics, and writes investigations and longform.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO