It’s hard to tell if this Trump campaign staffer has made a clanging error, or has successfully pulled off one of the most artful acts of subterfuge of the 2020 campaign cycle. Politico reports that a digital ad released by a fundraising arm of the Trump campaign calling on voters to “support our troops” featured stock photos of Russian-made fighter jets and weapons. The ad was made by the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, and shows three shadowy soldiers walking underneath a fighter jet. Aviation expert Pierre Sprey, who helped design both the F-16 and A-10 planes for the U.S. Air Force, said: “That’s definitely a MiG-29... I’m glad to see it’s supporting our troops.” Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies in Moscow, confirmed that the planes are indeed Russian-made MiG-29s, and also pointed out that the soldier on the far right is wielding a Soviet AK-74 assault rifle.
