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A member of a conservative US group has been fired after projecting a doctored version of the presidential seal at an event with President Donald Trump.
The seal - which included an eagle clutching golf clubs instead of arrows - was displayed for the entirety of the 80-minute speech by Trump to students at Turning Point USA's student summit on Tuesday.
The image showed a two-headed eagle - instead of just one head - an image which closely resembles the bird on the Russian coat of arms. The eagle is holding golf clubs in its left talons, instead of the traditional seal's clutch of arrows, and cash in its right talons, instead of an olive branch.
The doctored seal says "45 es un títere" which when translated from Spanish reads "45 is a puppet".
Spot the difference: the doctored seal next to the official presidential seal. Source: Reuters/White House
The shield on the bird's chest has hammer-and-sickle symbols on it.
There were suspicions at the White House that the organisers had found the doctored image online and mistakenly used it.
"We never saw the seal in question before it appeared in the video," said a White House official on Thursday.
"The White House had no knowledge of it."
A representative for the group, Turning Point USA, told the Washington Post that the fake seal was a mistake, the result of a rushed online search.
While the group called the slip-up "unacceptable", they maintained there was no "malicious intent".
The Russian seal next to the doctored Presidential seal. Source: AFP
The political non-profit group was founded to organise conservative students on college campuses by Charlie Kirk, an outspoken supporter of Trump.
The New York Times tracked down the creator of the seal who sold the image on anti-Trump merchandise on an online store.
The store's proprietor, Charles, said he had created the image, a little over a year ago out of frustration with Mr. Trump and his policies.
"This is the most petty piece of art I think I've ever designed," said Charles.
"This was every petty, little thing I could think of to needle him because he was driving me bananas with his politics."
Trump made an 80 minute speech in front of the image. Source: The Feed
