The front-runner for the Republican Party's nomination for the 2016 U.S. presidential election has issued a campaign advertisement on assisting U.S. veterans that uses a photograph of Soviet World War II veterans.
Real-estate mogul Donald Trump published the video on his Facebook page on January 22, but it has since been removed.
It has been picked up and republished by Russian media.
Donald Trump
In the ad, Trump says "our great veterans are being treated terribly." As he promises to "take care of our veterans…[and] wounded warriors," the video shows Soviet Red Army veterans wearing their medals and St. George victory ribbons while holding invitations to a commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
His campaign later reissued the video on its YouTube channel with a different video edited in.
Last July, Trump's campaign posted on Twitter a photo of Trump with the slogan: "We need real leadership." That montage included in the lower-right corner a stock photograph of historical reenactors dressed in World War II-era German uniforms.
The campaign deleted that tweet and blamed the incident on "a young intern."