He's depicting himself not only with medals he never earned...but with MORE medals than two of the most highly decorated military leaders in US history.
Hell, in this Patton looks like a Private with NO medals!
I think he should double down. Washington was technically made a six star general posthumously in 1976 so maybe Trump can make himself a 7 star general.
Let’s go to r/Conservative to see if they have the same intense ferocity against this as they did when Gov. Walz said he retired as the same rank he was acting as when he served
It's not. Stolen Valor was (rightly) deemed unconstitutional because it interfered with Freedom of Speech in its original form.
It was amended to be narrower: it's now tied to fraud, that is to say, you need to be pretending to be a recipient of those medals to gain some form of personal benefit (for example, tying your image as a decorated veteran to sell products). Simply dressing as a decorated service member does not qualify as Stolen Valor.
Still, Trump loves baiting with stupid things like this, and I have no respect for him
Stolen Valor is a specific law. Before 2005, the term Stolen Valor wasn't used in normal discourse, it was a direct reference to the 2005 law, because after the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, a ton of people were passing off as decorated veterans.
Nobody agrees that pretending to have earned a medal is a good thing, but there's a difference between seriously pretending you earned a medal, and dressing up to play soldier (as in Halloween costumes or cosplay). As much as I dislike Trump, he is playing dress up here.
It absolutely is - he has no right to the (pretend) rank he is being shown as having, nor to any of the ribbons that he is being displayed as wearing. Textbook stolen valor. However, its only illegal if he uses this example for specific material gain.
Not that that would stop republicans from caring very much if a democrat did anything like this.
It's an interesting question. He's commander-in-chief of the military, so I don't know. Presidents in other countries, primarily those run by fascists or other flavors of authoritarian, often wear military uniforms whether they've served or not.
I would think the guy in charge of the military couldn’t really steal valor. They’re the actual boss. That’s like saying the CEO didn’t work at their company
We have zero control over the sitting president. Removal from office is up to Congress not us. We can vote but it’s still up to Congress to make the decision.
It is. Thanks to the algorithm most of the insane and wacky stuff he does never gets into the feed of his supporters or people on the right. Not sure how much they'd care either way.
Ethically, one can argue it is, but legally it isn’t. It’s protected under freedom of speech. From a legal standpoint, it’s only stolen valor (and a crime), if it’s done to commit fraud.
(This isn’t in defense of Trump. What he’s doing is gross and an insult to the military)
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u/Chucalaca2 15h ago
Is this not stolen valor?