Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s official Twitter account posted a photo Tuesday that appears to show men in German World War II uniforms beneath an American flag instead of American troops.
The image, showing Trump’s face and an American flag, as well as an image of marching soldiers, says “We need real leadership. We need results. Let’s put the U.S. back into business!”
But the campaign deleted the graphic after Twitter users pointed out the foreign patches on the soldiers’ uniforms.
A reporter from MicNews found the original stock image, which appears to show actors donning the uniforms.
University of North Texas Professor Robert Citino, an expert on German military history, confirmed to CNN that the photo included German uniforms as “Waffen-SS,” a Nazi unit.
In a statement, a Trump spokesman blamed a “young intern” for the mistake.
“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,” Michael Cohen, the executive vice president of Trump Organization, told CNN in an email. “The intern apologized and immediately deleted the tweet.”