On Tuesday, Donald Trump spoke at a conference for conservative youths in Washington, unknowingly standing in front of a parody version of the presidential seal as he did so.
The seal appeared on a screen behind Trump after a 12-minute video detailing his journey to the presidency and no one in the room appeared to notice that anything was amiss. While a quick glance would mistake the seal for the actual United States version, a closer inspection yields that the parody appeared to poke fun at Trump’s love of golfing and alleged ties to Russia, with a two-headed eagle holding a fistful of bills and the other talon clutching golf clubs.
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Rather than the bald eagle of the United States, the two-headed eagle is historically linked to empire and has closely resembles the bird on the Russian Federation’s coat of arms, which holds an olive branch and arrows. In addition, the U.S. seal’s proclamation of “E pluribus unum,” which means “out of many, one,” was replaced with “45 es un títere,” which is Spanish for “45 is a puppet.” Trump is the 45th president of the United States.
Trump was speaking at the Teen Student Action Summit, which was organized by Turning Point USA. The organization has said that the inclusion of the seal was a mistake, and the Washington Post reports that the audio/video aide who found it online and hurriedly included it has been fired.
“We did let the individual go,” a Turning Point spokesman said. “I don’t think it was malicious intent, but nevertheless.”
The spokesman added that the “unacceptable” mistake came after a rushed search for a second presidential seal to display behind Trump. The actual seal of the United States had been displayed behind Trump’s name as he walked on stage and on the lectern as he spoke.
The seal was eventually linked to an online shop called One Term Donnie and was revealed to be created by graphic designer Charles Leazott, who told BuzzFeed News that he has no idea how his work managed to appear at the event.
“I’ve had the biggest grin on my face all day for the most petty reasons,” he said. “This is the most petty piece of art I’ve ever created. It was made as a joke, an emotional release. To see him speak in front of it just cracked me up.”
Twitter had plenty to say about POTUS’ gaffe.
Trump is so dumb he poses in front of a fake presidential seal showing a modified Russian double-headed eagle holding golf clubs and cash with the motto “45 is a puppet” in Spanish. They say the left can’t meme. It’s because we don’t have to.
Trump is the meme.#45isapuppet pic.twitter.com/NOCwQv3qz1
— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) July 25, 2019
Trump applauds himself while standing in front of a presidential seal calling him as a ‘puppet’ and showing an eagle clutching cash and golf clubs. Perfect.#45isapuppet pic.twitter.com/gfPgGD01MO
— J. Dice 🎲 (@jdice03) July 25, 2019
Charles Leazott is my hero! And so is the staffer who “accidentally” used this backdrop! @realDonaldTrump, you’ve never looked so good! 😂 https://t.co/7rACCJxGHN
— Louanne Neville (@Miniac33) July 26, 2019
I know there’s a lot going on but let’s just take a minute and think about how hilarious it is that Turning Point USA mistakenly used a parody presidential seal as background during Trump’s speech pic.twitter.com/puYuyWHlb5
— Clue Heywood (@ClueHeywood) July 25, 2019
Photo Credit: Getty / SOPA Images
