Trump Campaign Manager Tweets Wrong Air Force One Photo to Celebrate His Daytona 500 Appearance
The president’s campaign manager couldn’t quite speed this one past keen internet sleuths.
After Donald Trump‘s visit to the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Brad Parscale, who is running his re-election campaign, tweeted a photo of the Air Force One plane in flight at the NASCAR race. With the bravado characteristic of his boss, Parscale wrote, “.@realDonaldTrump won the #Daytona500 before the race even started.”
But social media users were quick to point out the snapshot was actually taken 16 years ago — as the plane was taking off after then-President George W. Bush stopped by the Florida sporting event in 2004.
Parscale soon deleted the tweet, replacing it with another post with a different image of Air Force One and a less-crowded set of bleachers. He used the same caption.
The photographer of the 2004 picture, Jonathan Ferrey, joked about the mishap, telling CNN that he didn’t attend this year’s Daytona 500.
“I have a lot of talented colleagues photographing the Daytona 500 this year,” Ferrey said. “I am unfortunately not there today, but apparently I won the Daytona 500 photography before the race even started.”
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The President of the United States gives the command for the 2020 #DAYTONA500. pic.twitter.com/YJgX6vwmon
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 16, 2020
During his drop-in at the Daytona 500, Trump, 73, took a few laps around the race track with the presidential motorcade as well as gave the starting command to the competing drivers.
“Daytona International Speedway, we love our country and it’s truly an honor to be with all of you at the great American race,” he said just before the green light, standing alongside First Lady Melania Trump. “Gentlemen, start your engines!”
The error in photo usage at the NASCAR appearance comes two weeks after the president made another since-deleted mistake related to another sporting event, the Super Bowl.
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Following the Kansas City Chiefs’ win over the San Francisco 49ers on Feb. 2, Trump shared his congratulations on Twitter — commending the state of Kansas, rather than Kansas City’s home of Missouri.
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“Congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs on a great game, and a fantastic comeback, under immense pressure,” he wrote at the time. “You represented the Great State of Kansas and, in fact, the entire USA, so very well. Our Country is PROUD OF YOU!”
Trump promptly replaced the tweet with one that properly referred to the Chiefs as being from “the Great State of Missouri.”
