The meme Donald Trump put on Twitter on Saturday that has been called anti-Semitic for featuring a six-point star like the Star of David was first created by a racist Twitter account.
On Saturday, his campaign tweeted an image co-opting a graphic depicting Hillary Clinton proudly looking off into the distance with the words "History made" emblazoned across it. Except this version featured a background made entirely of money and prominently included what appeared to be a red Star of David with the words "Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!" written inside. On Monday, however, Trump tweeted that “Dishonest media is trying their absolute best to depict a star in a tweet as the Star of David rather than a sheriff’s star, or a plain star!”
The earliest iteration of the questionable picture seems to have come from the Twitter account @FishBoneHead1, which tweeted the image on June 15.
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From there, the image found its way to 8chan, a gurgling cesspool on the Internet that is currently devoted to celebrating the death of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. As Mic.com reported on Sunday, the image was posted there on June 22, featuring the file name HillHistory.jpg which could be a reference to the Neo-Nazi code "HH," short for "Heil Hitler."
Trump's campaign quickly took down the meme after backlash but then put up a new image with a circle pasted over the star, whose points could still be faintly seen.
@FishBoneHead1 describes himself as a "comedian" who will "probably offend you if you are Liberal, Politically Correct, Feminist, Democrat." The account has created or shared several racist memes bashing Clinton, Muslims, and other minorities.
Another tweet from the same account includes a garish cartoon depicting a Muslim man carrying a severed head with an upside down sign reading "Refugees Welcome."
The individual running the account seems proud of their work, tweeting at various news outlets to claim credit.
This, of course, is far from the first time that Trump's Twitter account has been the source of controversy during this campaign. As The Daily Beast previously reported, there have been multiple instances in which the candidate has retweeted images from accounts with white supremacist and alt-right leanings. A former staffer with the campaign suggested that in some instances memes are created internally prior to their distribution on Trump's account which has over 9 million followers.
Trump has become somewhat of a mythic figure for 4chan users, the frequent subject of detailed and original internet art often depicting the candidate as a royal strongman capable of world domination. One user previously described him to The Daily Beast as "a sort of amalgamation of what 4chan would say if 4chan was a singular person.”
The questionable imagery that has, at times, flooded Trump's Twitter feed has drawn the expected ire of the Anti-Defamation League.
"We've been troubled by the anti-Semties and racists during this political season, and we've seen a number of so-called Trump supporters peddling some of the worst stereotypes all through this year," Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO and National Director of the ADL told The Daily Beast. Greenblatt said the organization would like to see Trump speak out against the individuals behind prejudiced images that permeate social media. "For those people who say that you can write this off, and that calling it out is simply political correctness, it's crazy."
Former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski defended the use of the image during an interview on Sunday saying that the star represented a sheriff's badge. To suggest that it bore any resemblance to anti-Semitic imagery, Lewandowski said is "political correctness run amok."
So why did Trump's campaign take it down and paste over the star?
—Asawin Suebsaeng contributed reporting.
