Trump speech: Staffer responsible for fake US presidential seal with Russian eagles and golf clubs fired
A Turning Point USA employee has been fired over their involvement in placing an altered presidential seal behind Donald Trump during a speech earlier in the week.
A spokesperson for the conservative group told the Washington Post, that a member of its video team responsible for the seal, which featured a two-headed eagle similar to the one on Russia’s seal as well as a pack of golf clubs, had been dismissed.
“We did let the individual go,” the spokesperson said. “I don’t think it was malicious intent, but nevertheless.”
Neither Turning Point nor the White House knows who originally created the seal, but the Post found a similar design on an online store called called Inktale, under a creator named OneTermDonnie.
In the store’s design, which is sold on t-shirts, hoodies, tote bags, and other accessories, the seal also has a banner that reads “ 45 es un titere,” which is Spanish for “45 is a puppet.”
A source told CNN that the fake presidential seal appeared on the screen after the video team was told they needed to find hi-res image of the seal on short notice, leading to a flustered Google search.
“One of our video team members did a Google Image search for a high-res png presidential seal,” the source said. They added that the team member “did the search and with the pressure of the event, didn’t notice that it is a doctored seal.”
The president addressed a crowd of 1,500 young conservatives in front of the seal as the main speaker at the organisation’s Teen Student Action Summit in Washington, DC. His 80-minute speech included praise for newly installed UK prime minister Boris Johnson, as well as a claim that the president has absolute power according to the US constitution, which is not true.
