- President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign released a new Facebook ad featuring a picture of a group of protesters attacking a police officer along with the words “public safety vs. chaos and violence.”
- But that photo is actually from a pro-democracy protest in Kiev, Ukraine, in 2014. The photographer, Mstyslav Chernov, confirmed to Business Insider that it is his photo from six years ago.
- Trump has sent federal law enforcement officials to quell the protests in Portland, Oregon, and threatened to send more to other Democrat-led cities.
- The Trump campaign has taken advantage of protests in the United States as a key theme of the campaign. Chad Wolf, acting secretary of national security, described the Portland protesters as “violent anarchists.”
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
A new announcement from President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign used an image of Ukraine’s pro-democracy protests since 2014 to show what he called “chaos and violence” in the United States.
The announcement, released Tuesday, includes a photo of the president listening to police leaders alongside another photo that appears to show a group of protesters attacking a police officer on the ground.
“Public safety versus chaos and violence,” says the text below the photos.
A screenshot of one of the ads on Facebook.
Donald J. Trump for President, Inc / Facebook
Trump has sent federal law enforcement officials to quell the protests in Portland, Oregon, and has threatened to send more to other Democrat-led cities. Trump campaign experts have pounced on the protests as a key electoral issue, Business Insider reported.
However, the image the Trump campaign used is not of the United States, or this year. It was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, Wikipedia’s public domain media file, in 2014 with the tag “a police officer attacked by protesters during clashes in Ukraine, Kiev. Events of February 18, 2014”.
The photographer, Mstyslav Chernov, confirmed to Business Insider that this was his photo from Ukraine in 2014.
“Photography has always been used to manipulate public opinion. And with the rise of social media and the rise of populism, this is happening even more,” he said.
“The only way to combat this is through education and media literacy. When people learn to independently distinguish the truth from the lies, then the number of manipulations will decrease.”
President Donald Trump at a press conference on Tuesday.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
Trump has used inflammatory language to describe the numerous protests against police brutality in the country that were fueled by the death of George Floyd in late May.
In Portland, where protests have continued for nearly two months, federal officials, dispatched against the wishes of local officials, have used tear gas and non-lethal ammunition against protesters. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf described the protesters as “violent anarchists” in a statement last Thursday.
Jesse Lehrich, a former spokesperson for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, tweeted a screenshot of the announcement Tuesday and added “LOL.”
—Jesse Lehrich (@JesseLehrich) July 22, 2020
According to the Facebook banner, the announcement has been published three times since Tuesday and has been accompanied by messages designed to appeal to American evangelicals.
“Help ensure Pro-Life values are represented in Washington for four more years,” said one publication with the announcement.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
