A campaign fundraising ad for U.S. President Donald Trump aimed at rallying support for the country’s troops actually displays Russian-made military equipment, Politico reported Monday.
The digital “Support Our Troops” campaign that ran between Sept. 8-12 shows the silhouettes of three soldiers as fighter jets fly overhead.
“That’s definitely a [Russian] MiG-29,” defense analyst Pierre Sprey, who assisted the U.S. Air Force with fighter aircraft design, told Politico. “I’m glad to see it’s supporting our troops.”
Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Moscow Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, confirmed to Politico that the jets are MiG-29s, adding that one of the soldiers in the photo is carrying an AK-47 assault rifle.
The ad, produced by Trump Make America Great Again Committee, uses a stock photo from Shutterstock.com, where it was uploaded by an Andorra-based user, Politico noted.
The image’s creator, Arthur Zakirov, later told Politico that his creation shows a 3D model of a MiG-29 and that the soldiers were Russian models.
“Today you hear about the Kremlin’s hand in U.S. politics. Tomorrow you are this hand,” Zakirov joked.
The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee, which both operate the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, did not comment on Politico’s report.
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