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Part of a series on Conan the al-Baghdadi Raid Dog. [View Related Entries]

U.S.—Trump recently shared a meme that showed him riding the "Hero Dog" into a space battle against several deadly threats from among the stars.

"AMERICAN HERO!" Trump tweeted when he posted the image, along with a winky face. The picture shows Trump fending off myriad threats, from Dune's gigantic sandworm and the Beast from beloved 1983 classic Krull to a Cylon Basestar and a Xenomorph.

Trump thought the image would be taken in a light-hearted manner, but he couldn't have been more wrong.

A red light began blaring in the offices of The New York Times as soon as the image was posted. "Looks like we've got a live one, boys," said one editor. "Err--I mean, non-gender-conforming persons. Let's fact-check this puppy." An army of fact-checkers then got to work, running the image through advanced fact-checking software. The Times recently had a huge supercomputer installed for this purpose, and they put it to work.

Sure enough, many of the pixels seemed not to line up quite right, plus fact-checkers discovered that several elements of the image were entirely fictional.

"The presence of a Cylon Basestar in the image casts doubt on its authenticity right away," said Bart Tucker, head fact-checker at The Washington Post. "We were also able to trace the image of the sandworm to the cover of Avalon Hill's 1979 board game Dune, so we can discredit that element of the space battle in any case."

Further historical research suggested that nearly every element of the picture was fake, from TIE fighters and the Death Star to the looming Borg Cube.

"This president is trying to mislead the people with this meme," said a CNN spokesperson. "We are only OK with politicians who mislead people with regards to the effects of their healthcare policies or their Native American heritage, not presidents who tell jokes and have fun."

The Daily Wire DAILY Follow WIRE @realDailyWire This should keep the NYT busy for a while THE HOUSE CrealDailyWire 4:50 PM - 30 Oct 2019 231 Retweets 799 Likes t 231 44 799 STATES NICES

The Daily Show @TheDailyShow He would've done it for real but this dog is trained to take down global threats Donald J. Trump @realDonald Trump 2h AMERICAN HERO! 11:46 AM Oct 30, 2019 Twitter Web Client

Steve Herman @W7VOA 1h I've requested details from the @WhiteHouse on this photo. There was no such canine event on today's @POTUS schedule but there is a Medal of Honor ceremony set here for later today for an active duty Green Beret Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 2h AMERICAN HERO! t312 2.4K 773 Steve Herman @W7VOA Replying to @W7VOA @WhiteHouse and @POTUS "It's photoshopped," acknowledges a @WhiteHouse official. The dog is not here at the @WhiteHouse -- yet. 11:30 AM Oct 30, 2019 Twitter Web App

Donald J. Trump @realDonald Trump AMERICAN HERO! @realDailyWire 10:54 AM Oct 30, 2019 Twitter for iPhone

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About

Donald Trump Awards Classified al-Baghdadi Raid Dog refers to a series of image edits based on a mock photograph of United States President Donald Trump awarding the Classified al-Baghdadi Raid Dog with a medal embossed with a paw print.

Origin

On October 29th, 2019, the conservative news outlet The Daily Wire^[1] tweeted an edited photograph of Trump awarding the dog with the medal. They wrote, "Please, @realDonaldTrump." The post received more than 9,600 likes and 1,300 retweets within 24 hours (shown below).

The Daily Wire DAILY WIRE @realDailyWire Please, @realDonald Trump. realDailyWire 11:04 AM Oct 29, 2019 Twitter for iPhone

Spread

The following day, President Trump tweeted^[2] the photograph with the caption, "AMERICAN HERO!" The tweet received more than 135,000 likes and 30,000 retweets in 24 hours (shown below, left).

That morning, Steve Herman, the White House bureau chief for VOA radio network, tweeted^[3] that the White House had confirmed that the image was photoshopped (shown below, center).

Additionally, Twitter^[4] user @JerylBier tweeted a side-by-side photo of the dog with the original photograph of Trump awarding Vietnam veteran James C. McCloughan with the medal of honor (shown below).^[5]

The image also sparked a number of reactions online. The Twitter account for the television satirical comedy The Daily Show tweeted,^[6] "He would've done it for real but this dog is trained to take down global threats" (shown below, left). Twitter^[7] user @PoliticsJOE_UK swapped the heads of Trump and the dog (shown below, center). Twitter^[8] user @TheToddWilliams' tweeted a version that featured a speech bubble for the dog that contained the text, "Lock him up" (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Andrew Dickens @andrewdickens Replying to @JimMFelton and @realDonaldTrump Dog redacted @realDailyWire 11:27 AM Oct 30, 2019 Twitter for Android

Tweet Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump AMERICAN HERO!

Beth Delecto @Beth08786255 Replying to@realDonald Trump YAASS I love a s----- photoshop challenge. AMERICAN HERO! OraalDailMA 12:00 PM Oct 30, 2019 Twitter Web App

The Warax. @IAmTheWarax SOUTH AMERICAN HERO!! #narcohippos 11:39 AM Oct 30, 2019 Twitter for iPhone

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

^[1] Twitter – @realDailyWire's Tweet

^[2] Twitter – @realDonaldTrump's Tweet

^[3] Twitter – @W7VOA's Tweet

^[4] Twitter – @JerylBier's Tweet

^[5] CNN – Trump awards first Medal of Honor

^[6] Twitter – @TheDailyShow's Tweet

^[7] Twitter – @PoliticsJOE_UK's Tweet

^[8] Twitter – @TheToddWilliams' Tweet

Recent Images 16 total

Father Damien Karrol @carolrhartsell Imean, while we're doing bad photoshops of good boys. Vire 12:44 PM Oct 30, 2019 TweetDeck

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Donald Trump Awards Classified al-Baghdadi Raid Dog