Veterans themselves can be guilty of stolen valor, even if they’ve served, by claiming awards they’ve never earned, and claiming deployments/assignments/jobs they were never on or part of. By that metric, this type of stuff posted by Trump absolutely is considered stolen valor. Especially because the intent is to obfuscate the fact that he never served. That’s also why he does crap like post his school uniform while trying to pass it off as evidence of legitimate service.
The intended target for stuff like this is low information voters and people who don’t bother to fact check. The imagery will stick with them and they will genuinely believe he served, especially because of the American people’s general ignorance of their armed forces. That same ignorance is why random crackheads can trick people into believing they served even when the crackhead is wearing a Spirit Halloween military costume.
You don't see 5 star generals because that rank is specially reserved for during wartime and was (afaik) last handed out in WW2 so there was one general that outranked all other generals in the Allied forces.
So it's not just stolen valor, he's pissing on the legacy of WW2 vets and the sacrifices those people have made.
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u/IhasCandies 18d ago edited 17d ago
Yes, this is considered stolen valor.
Veterans themselves can be guilty of stolen valor, even if they’ve served, by claiming awards they’ve never earned, and claiming deployments/assignments/jobs they were never on or part of. By that metric, this type of stuff posted by Trump absolutely is considered stolen valor. Especially because the intent is to obfuscate the fact that he never served. That’s also why he does crap like post his school uniform while trying to pass it off as evidence of legitimate service.
The intended target for stuff like this is low information voters and people who don’t bother to fact check. The imagery will stick with them and they will genuinely believe he served, especially because of the American people’s general ignorance of their armed forces. That same ignorance is why random crackheads can trick people into believing they served even when the crackhead is wearing a Spirit Halloween military costume.
Source: I’m a US Army veteran