President Donald Trump, who has never served in the U.S. military, has now sparked accusations of "stolen valor" after sharing an A.I.-generated image of himself in a military uniform alongside General George S. Patton and General Douglas MacArthur, complete with a slew of medals he never earned.
Trump posted the image at 6:14 PM Eastern Time on Truth Social with no additional comment. Patton and McArthur are shown with a lower rank and fewer decorations than Trump. In reality, Patton held the rank of four-star general, while MacArthur was one of only nine Americans to achieve the rank of five-star general.
You can see his post below.
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social
Trump has a history of disrespecting members of the military, particularly, as he put it, the "suckers and losers" who die in combat.
A 2020 report from The Atlantic revealed that Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, near Paris, in 2018. At the time, four individuals with direct knowledge of the situation said that Trump declined the visit due to concerns about his hair being affected by the rain and a lack of importance placed on honoring American war dead.
During discussions with senior staff members on the morning of the planned visit, Trump questioned the necessity of visiting the cemetery, referring to it as "filled with losers." Additionally, on the same trip, he reportedly referred to the over 1,800 marines who perished at Belleau Wood as "suckers" for losing their lives.
Trump also infamously dodged the Vietnam War draft by claiming he had bone spurs in his foot (a fact he has periodically downplayed).
“I had a doctor that gave me a letter—a very strong letter on the heels,” he said during an interview with the New York Times in 2016 explaining his deferments, adding that the heel spurs—protrusions caused by calcium built up on the heel bone—were “not a big problem, but it was enough of a problem.”
Trump has often been mocked for his bone spurs story, perhaps most notably by late Arizona Republican Senator John McCain. The relationship between the two men was notoriously contentious and in 2015, Trump, then a presidential candidate, infamously said that McCain, a veteran of the armed forces who was a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam, was “not a war hero.”
The image quickly prompted accusations of "stolen valor," with critics mocking Trump for portraying himself as outranking two of the nation's most celebrated military commanders despite never serving in the armed forces.
Trump's AI-generated pic attracted attention amid his assurances to reporters that "a lot of progress" had been made toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz and suggested an announcement could come as early as Wednesday.
That same day, Iran's Foreign Ministry announced that Tehran and Oman had agreed on a shipping route through the strategic waterway and were finalizing plans to jointly oversee maritime transit.
Meanwhile, CBS News reported that the United States has depleted nearly its entire global stockpile of long-range precision missiles during the conflict with Iran, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has previously brushed aside concerns about dwindling U.S. munitions reserves.
Considering how many times we've seen this same song and dance, there's more than enough evidence to conclude that Trump doesn't have a clue what he's doing and has no business using the respective legacies of Patton and McArthur for propaganda.
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