Some Russians Are Celebrating ‘Defender Of The Fatherland’ Day By Posting Pictures Of Donald Trump
It’s Defender of the Fatherland Day in Russia, and some citizens are celebrating by posting pictures of the man they believe always has their country’s back — Donald Trump.
Pictures of the American president spread across social media this weekend. It seems some cheeky Russians decided to honor the man whose campaign allegedly colluded with Russian intelligence to take down Hillary Clinton and further Vladimir Putin’s interests. The trend caught the attention of GQ correspondent Julia Ioffe, who posted one of the pictures of Trump in traditional Russian military attire. Ioffe shared this photo — which had been circulating around the internet — on her Twitter account.
The Russian people — and sometimes even its state-sponsored media — have enjoyed some online trolling at the expense of the American president in the past. Last year, a Russian state journalist took to the air to declare “Trump is ours!” after the president’s decision to fire Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, just hours after Tillerson criticized Russia for attacking an ex-spy.
Russian journalist Olga Skabeeva took to the air to declare that the firing showed how Trump is fully under Russia’s control.
“Yesterday Tillerson supporter Theresa May in her ‘highly likely’ Russia accusation. And Trump immediately fired him. Trump is ours!” she declared.
Skabeeva’s boast was relayed on CNN(and Twitter) and found viral attention online, as many American opponents of Trump agreed that he appeared to be working in the best interests of Russia. It was not a one-time occurrence for Skabeeva, as Raw Story noted that she also took to the air to say “Trump is ours!” after the president’s reluctance to enact new sanctions against Russia that had passed Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support.
Trump has been criticized for his close relationship with Russia and Vladimir Putin in particular, despite an assessment from U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. Trump drew considerable criticism for a report showing the lengths he has taken to conceal what has been said in his private meetings with Putin, with Trump even confiscating translators’ notes and not allowing other top administration officials to be briefed on what was discussed.
Today is Defender of the Fatherland Day (formerly Red Army Day) in Russia. Some Russians are marking it with good humor, congratulating us with this defender of the fatherland. pic.twitter.com/QmK1bS1xol
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) February 23, 2019
In Russia, Defender of the Fatherland Day is one of the most important public holidays and celebrates the founding of the Red Army in 1918. Vladimir Putin celebrated this year by laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin wall. Donald Trump, who was spending the weekend at his luxury Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, did not comment.
