The Trump campaign ran a 'Support Our Troops' ad with a stock photo of Russian fighter jets
Google Transparency Report/ Trump Make America Great Again Committee
- An advert from President Donald Trump's campaign, which urges Americans to "Support Our Troops," used a stock photo of Russian fighter jets.
- In the advert, five soldiers are seen marching, while three Russian Air Force MiG-29 jets fly overhead, Politico reported.
- That photo is available for download on the stock-image website Shutterstock, Politico found.
- The advert ran from September 8 to September 12 and was viewed around 10,000 times, according to Google data.
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An advertisement from President Donald Trump's campaign, which urges Americans to support US troops, featured images of Russian fighter jets.
The online advert, which was paid by the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, ran from September 8 to September 12, showed five soldiers walking below three fighter jets, alongside the tag line: "Support Our Troops."
However, the jets in the image aren't used by the US Air Force.
Pierre Sprey, an engineer who has designed jets for the Air Force, told Politico that the planes in the photo are actually Russian Air Force MiG-29 jets.
"I'm glad to see it's supporting our troops," he said.
The image of the jets and the soldiers are available for download royalty-free on the stock-image website Shutterstock, Politico reported.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Ruslan Pukhov, the director of the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies in Moscow, also told Politico that the soldier on the far right of the advert is carrying an AK-74 rifle, which is a Soviet-developed weapon.
Data from the Google Transparency Report shows that the image was viewed around 10,000 times, and cost the Trump Make America Great Again Committee less than $100,000.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment. Politico said that neither the Trump campaign nor the Republican National Committee responded to its requests for comment.
In July, the Trump campaign also used an image from 2014 protests in Ukraine in a Facebook ad to depict "chaos & violence" in the US.
Trump has only just emerged from a weekslong controversy of his treatment of the US armed forces.
A September 3 article from The Atlantic reported that Trump called US soldiers who died in World War I "losers" and "suckers," prompting many top US military figures and officials to condemn the president. Trump denied The Atlantic's reporting, but other outlets — including Fox News — have since corroborated it.
Additionally, with 49 days until the 2020 election, Russia has been accused of seeking to influence the ballot in favor of Trump.
Photo by Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images
On July 24, William Evanina, the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said that "using a range of efforts, including internet trolls and other proxies," Russia "continues to spread disinformation in the US that is designed to undermine confidence in our democratic process."
US officials have warned that Russia's intelligence agency has been creating and targeting Americans with news articles that spread misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic and attack Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
The Trump campaign spent freely in 2020 to date, blowing a $200 million lead in campaign funds that it had over Biden's team.
Trump reportedly considered putting $100 million of his own funds into the campaign war chest. He spent $66 million of his own money during the 2016 campaign.
- Read more:
- A Trump campaign ad depicting a police officer being attacked by protesters is actually a 2014 photo of pro-democracy protests in Ukraine
- 11 things you need to know about the billions of dollars gushing through Election 2020, including who's winning in the Trump-versus-Biden main event
- Trump actually has more campaign cash now than 4 years ago
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