Donald Trump baffles internet with bizarre Photoshopped pic of him giving medal to hero dog ‘Conan’
DONALD Trump has tweeted a bizarre Photoshopped pic of him donning a medal on hero military dog Conan – superimposed on a real-life Vietnam hero.
The US president sparked outrage as retired Army medic James McCloughan, whose face was edited from the original photo, is a decorated former US Army soldier and Vietnam War vet.
McCloughan received the Medal of Honor for saving the lives of 10 men during the Vietnam War.
Then a Private First Class, he knocked out a rocket-propelled grenade position with a grenade, fought and killed enemy soldiers, treated and saved wounded troops, and organised their evacuation.
Conan the Belgian Malinois, on the other hand, is the canine that was wounded while chasing down ISIS monster Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before the terror boss blew himself up in his Syrian lair.
The "joke" edited photo was posted on Trump's Twitter account, where the president has written: "Thank you Daily Wire. Very cute creation, but the 'live' version of Conan will be leaving the Middle East for the White House sometime next week!"
When Trump first posted the altered image of him presenting a medal to the dog, it came with an all-caps tweet of "AMERICAN HERO."
Daily Wire is a right-wing American news and opinion website founded in 2015 by conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro.
It had created the image by taking an Associated Press photo of an actual medal presentation by Trump and replacing the human recipient with the canine hero, before posting it on Twitter.
The initial photo was taken at a 2017 ceremony, where the retired Army medic was presented with the Medal of Honor.
While some people laughed at the bizarre image, others hit out, saying the altered pic is "just as fake as your Presidency".
The ran a story on the backlash, saying the "obviously Photoshopped meme of Trump giving a Medal of Honor to the military canine injured in the US special forces raid on Baghdadi's compound has sparked outrage from the perpetually outraged media and has inspired a number of urgent tweets".
It added that when the New York Times contacted McCloughan, "the paper found that he didn't have quite the response that Trump's critics probably hoped he'd have."
Instead of being upset, the hero was "not offended at all, in fact he laughed when he compared the two images", the Daily Wire added.
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The military working dog injured in the raid last weekend was hurt after being exposed to live electrical cables but has returned to active duty, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.
Gen. Frank McKenzie, who leads US Central Command, said the hero canine has worked with special operations forces for four years and taken part in about 50 missions.
He said working dogs like this one are "critical members of our forces".
The White House declined to comment about the president's tweet.
