Reuters
US President Donald Trump stands next to altered presidential seal at Turning Point USA's Teen Student Action Summit in Washington on Tuesday.
- The man who made the fake presidential seal that appeared behind US President Donald Trump said he made it in 2016 as a "goofy thing" and he was shocked to see it displayed behind the president, the Washington Post reported.
- Charles Leazott, a graphic designer, said he is a former Republican who can't stand Trump, adding that he is now facing a barrage of online abuse.
- Turning Point USA, which hosted the event where the seal was displayed, said they fired the person responsible, but believed it was a simple mistake.
- Leazott is skeptical and said it had to be deliberate as his image was hard to find.
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The man who created the fake presidential seal that was displayed on a giant screen behind US President Donald Trump said he designed it as a "goofy thing" and never thought it would get so much attention, the Washington Post reported.
Charles Leazott, a former Republican who says he can't stand Trump came forward to say he created the fake seal and was delighted to see his protest image behind the president. He says that he is now getting abuse online as a result of the seal's newfound fame.
Trump appeared in Washington, DC, on Tuesday to deliver a speech to thousands of young, cheering supporters at the Turning Point USA conference.
No one in the audience appeared to notice that behind him was a presidential seal that featured a double-headed bald eagle - resembling the Russian national symbol - and holding golf clubs instead the arrows that appears on the actual presidential seal.
Instead of the US Latin motto "E pluribus unum," the seal featured the words "45 es un titere," which means "45 is a puppet" in Spanish.
The eagle also holds dollar bills instead of a branch, and hammer and sickle imagery - used in the USSR's flag - replaces America's stars.
Here is the fake seal:
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo The fake presidential seal.
And here is the real presidential seal:
Liaison Agency Seal of the President of the United States.
Leazott, a graphic designer from Virginia, designed the seal in 2016, and sold it on his web store One Term Donnie, alongside posters, hats, stickers, shirts and posters critical of the Trump presidency.
Leazott told The Washington Post that he used to be a Republican and he voted for George W Bush twice, but that he could not support Trump. In fact, he called Trump someone "who I despise."
He called the art "the most petty piece of art I have ever created" and said he never expected it to have such a platform.
"I'm a graphic designer, it's just something I tossed together," he said. "This was just a goofy thing for some people I knew. I had no idea it would blow up like this."
He said he was inundated with messages when he woke up on Thursday.
"It's been chaos," he told The Post. "This is not what I expected when I woke up today."
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Donald Trump speaks in New Hampshire from a podium featuring the real presidential seal.
Leazott said he has seen a lot of support, but also abuse. "The worst has been Facebook," he told the Washington Post.
"Holy crap at the amount of vile, hateful Facebook messages," he said. "It's apparently a personal affront to some people."
But Leazott has embraced his work's newfound fame, and has made the image of Trump with his work the background on his computer. He told The Post that demand for his products has increased so much that he has started working with a fulfillment center.
Leazott said that whoever put the graphic behind Trump is "my absolute hero."
Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
The Russian national symbol, a double headed eagle is seen covered by thick layer of snow in Moscow, Russia on December 6, 2018.
It remains unclear who put the seal behind the president, and why they did it.
A spokesman for Turning Point USA told The Post that it had identified the person responsible for putting the seal behind Trump, and "let the individual go."
The spokesman said the incident was a mistake born from a last-minute search for an image of the seal, but still let the staff member go: "I don't think it was malicious intent but nevertheless."
But Leazott said it had to be deliberate. He called Turning Point USA's account "a load of crap" as his image would be hard to find.
"You have to look for this. There's no way this was an accident is all I'm saying."