Donald Trump Awards Classified al-Baghdadi Raid Dog

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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).

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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).