President Trump sparked accusations of “stolen valor” after he shared an A.I.-generated image of himself in a military uniform alongside General George S. Patton and General Douglas MacArthur, complete with a slew of medals he never earned.
President Donald Trump, who has never served in the U.S. military, shared the A.I.-generated image of himself in a military uniform alongside General George S. Patton and General Douglas MacArthur.
Trump posted the image at 6:14 PM Eastern Time on Truth Social with no additional comment. Patton and MacArthur are shown with a lower rank and fewer decorations than Trump. In reality, Patton held the rank of four-star general, while MacArthur was one of only nine Americans to achieve the rank of five-star general.
Trump has a history of disrespecting members of the military, particularly, as he put it, the “suckers and losers” who die in combat.
A 2020 report from The Atlantic revealed that Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, near Paris, in 2018. At the time, four individuals with direct knowledge of the situation said that Trump declined the visit due to concerns about his hair being affected by the rain and a lack of importance placed on honoring American war dead.
During discussions with senior staff members on the morning of the planned visit, Trump questioned the necessity of visiting the cemetery, referring to it as “filled with losers.” Additionally, on the same trip, he reportedly referred to the over 1,800 Marines who perished at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for losing their lives.
Trump also dodged the Vietnam War draft by claiming he had bone spurs in his foot.
In a 2016 interview with The New York Times, Trump explained his deferments by saying that a doctor had given him a letter regarding the condition. He said the heel spurs were “not a big problem, but it was enough of a problem.”
Trump has often been mocked for his bone spurs story, notably by late Arizona Republican Senator John McCain. In 2015, Trump, then a presidential candidate, said that McCain, a veteran and Vietnam prisoner of war, was “not a war hero.”
The image quickly prompted accusations of “stolen valor,” with critics mocking Trump for portraying himself as outranking two of the nation’s most celebrated military commanders despite never serving in the armed forces.
Trump’s AI-generated image attracted attention amid his assurances to reporters that “a lot of progress” had been made toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz, with an announcement potentially coming as early as Wednesday.
That same day, Iran’s Foreign Ministry announced that Tehran and Oman had agreed on a shipping route through the strategic waterway and were finalizing plans to jointly oversee maritime transit.
Meanwhile, CBS News reported that the United States had depleted nearly its entire global stockpile of long-range precision missiles during the conflict with Iran, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had previously dismissed concerns about dwindling U.S. munitions reserves.
