'Very telling': Trump agency under fire after posting Russian flag on Flag Day

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Raw Story

June 14, 2025 10:40PM ET


Donald Trump's administration on Saturday was accused of promoting the Russian flag, on Flag Day. The Department of Defense over the weekend wished social media a "Happy Flag Day!" "Let us honor the emblem of our nation and the stars and stripes that unite us all. As we display our nations flag and reflect on the values it represents, let’s celebrate the freedom, courage and resilience that makes our country great," the department stated Saturday.

The image attached to the post included two small images that appear to represent the Russian flag. The internet reaction came quickly.

Geopolitics expert Jessica Berlin said, "Nothing to see here, just the United States Dept of Defense wishing everyone a happy Russian flag day." Economics professor Roman Sheremeta said, "The U.S. Department of Defense congratulated Americans on their Flag Day. Except the two small flags are russian."

"This post has been up on the Department’s X page for several hours. It is very telling about who is really running the U.S. Department of Defense," he added on Saturday.

Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/trump-telling-russian-flag-day/

---

Link to tweet

Huey Li
@DrHueyLi
·
Follow
The DOD is celebrating Flag Day with not one, but two, Russian flags. I have to retweet this pic before it's deleted.
Now I'll disappear into Blue Sky again.
Department of Defense 🇺🇸
@DeptofDefense
Happy Flag Day! 🇺🇸

Let us honor the emblem of our nation and the stars and stripes that unite us all. As we display our nations flag and reflect on the values it represents, let’s celebrate the freedom, courage and resilience that makes our country great.
Image
4:26 PM · Jun 14, 2025

[LiberalArkie]

1. I caught the same thing early this morning

[johnnyfins]

2. Meh. Bad graphic designer.

[FalloutShelter]

3. No departmental oversight at all.

Everyone in the criminal administration is either, stupid, high, evil, or asleep at the wheel…
Or ALL of the above:

[DBoon]

22. you forgot to add "drunk"

this is Hegeseth's DoD after all

[ShazzieB]

44. OMG, yes!

I didn't think of that one myself!

[tanyev]

7. Or they outsourced the job to a Russian design shop.

Another pro-Trump ad uses footage from Russia
Politico
https://www.politico.com › news › 2020/10/13 › trump...
Oct 13, 2020 — This is the fourth time a Trump-affiliated group has used Russian footage in an ad.

GOP Senate hopeful Kari Lake uses Russian troop stock ...
The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk › ... › US politics
Oct 7, 2022 — Republicans have used Russian stock footage in other promotional videos in the past.

Trump ad asks people to support the troops. But it uses a ...
Politico
https://www.politico.com › news › 2020/09/14 › trump...
Sep 15, 2020 — 11 calling on people to “support our troops” uses a stock photo of Russian-made fighter jets and Russian models dressed as soldiers.

GOP Senate candidate touts military support with image of ...
Roll Call
https://rollcall.com › 2022/04/22 › gop-senate-candidat...
Apr 22, 2022 — Jets in Colorado GOP Senate candidate Joe O'Dea's campaign ad touting his support for the military were Russian, experts said.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. The fact that it was posted over 18 hours ago

and is STILL there - even with all the commentary out in the Xitter-verse - tells you all you need to know. They are quick to delete any other time (and repost). It would be a very easy fix.

[DENVERPOPS]

32. Interesting

but Ruskie flag is horizontal stripes of White/Blue/Red, Top to Bottom.........Of course the exact order of the Horizontal stripes from top to bottom might be too blatant......

Trump re-did the exterior paint job on the NEW AFOne's in a similar manner. He insisted on horizontal Stripes of all three of the same colors as the Russian flag, but in different order than the Russian Flag, to be subtle, but surely to make Putin happy....... Trump originally had the Blue on the top of the planes, but the design engineers at Boeing threw that out instantaneously....seems any thing but white on the top of the plane would absorb a ton of radiant energy from the sun, and overheat the airplane's ability to cool the air inside the plane. They stated there is a big enough problem already cooling all the massive amount of electronic gear in the plane without adding to the problem with a Blue Top..........Also, AFOne's already have a ton of Refrigerators and Freezers holding a great deal of food to feed everyone on board on long trips and back......The entire.Crew/Politicians/SS/Press corps.........

[BumRushDaShow]

35. His original AF1 obsession plane (from 2019)

had a dark blue underbelly which would have impacted the instruments under there - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48625986



Even his own private plane has a white underside.

[DENVERPOPS]

36. You always have the best info..............

I used to fly around with a senior United Pilot in the 70's, by senior I mean like 32,000+ hours with United.
He used to talk about United and all the other airliner paint jobs........
He felt that American? with mostly just the Aluminum, was the smartest airline because the weight of all that paint they use on the aircraft was incredible. Meaning they could transport more air freight, passengers, etc and make more money.

He also commented on how stupid the airlines were whenever they got a new CEO who had to make his ego statement of changing the logos on everything and having the planes repainted to what HE thought was better. He told me about the massively laborious process to strip off the old paint and to paint it with the new colors and it was mind boggling. Including all the planes that would be grounded and unavailable to be making revenue.... Let alone the new color scheme/logo on all the support vehicles, stationary, tickets, business cards, etc the list was endless. He laughed at how the airlines then questioned why they weren't making enough money....

[BumRushDaShow]

38. "I used to fly around with a senior United Pilot in the 70's, by senior I mean like 32,000+ hours "

True story but my mom used to say that she would refuse to get on any plane unless the Captain had gray hair and we always did have one who did (she would always make sure to check).

[DENVERPOPS]

41. Over the years

I talked to many other middle aged pilots and this guy and another pilot from Wyoming were legends among United Pilots....

One pilot said: Did he ever tell you about his unbelievable landing in Chicago??????????????? He said that he pulled off a miraculous landing due to a plane malfunction, and United gave him six months off as a reward.......I told him that I had heard a lot of stories, mostly instructional, as he was teaching me, but that his adult daughter had told me there were some he didn't even tell them, and that was one of them......LOL She had to find out about it from another United Pilot at a party.............

I watch those Air Disaster series on the Discover channel, which are fascinating........Amazing the number of them are because of simple pilot errors/judgement, and the number of them that are because of lack of maintenance. or cost cutting on maintenance...... That was almost never the case until the "Greed is Good" 80's............I am waiting for the info on that Dreamliner that just crashed.......

[Alpeduez21]

15. That was my first thought, too

There is so much to be furious about that blowing up such a nothing burger is more distraction than effective criticism

[AnotherMother4Peace]

25. Just another "nothing burger" to add to all the other "mistakes", "misspeaks", "oops" that tRump

and his ilk hide behind and somehow get away with. At the beginning of his first "term" his followers/media always excused him as being new to the office. Now the frog has boiled and nothing seems to be too much for his followers/media.

[Oneironaut]

27. Exactly. It seems more like an uninformed mistake, tbh.

[forgotmylogin]

39. The Admin really doesn't want to pay for professional graphic design.

Or at least they don't do review and focus testing. Remember the inadvertently homoerotic Trump/Pence logo with the T on top penetrating the P?

[Beartracks]

37. Agreed. There's no actual blue "stripe" between the red and white.

It's just the textured blue of the image background filling the negative space between the red and white.

But still....

====================

[bdamomma]

4. It can't

be any clearer than that HE"S A RUSSIAN ASSET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We all know that's the colors of the Russian flag.

[EarthFirst]

5. This is just another example of the dog whistles they throw for their plausible deniability...

They know exactly what they’re doing when they pull this shit…

[GiqueCee]

6. I don't think...

... that Defense Secy. Kegbreath, or anyone associated with him, is clever enough to have conceived anything this subtle. But hey, let's run with it and beat 'em over the head until they're just a puddle of blood and bone. Figuratively speaking, of course. Heh, heh, heh.

Just a single white bar on either side of the stars would have more effectively conveyed the administration's blatant racism as they try to erase the contributions of Black Americans by removing their names from ships, memorials, and anything else that commemorates their multitude of accomplishments. It just shows what weak little shitstains this administration's apologists really are.

[LiberalArkie]

9. I think they are using Russia AI programs. The little flags are indeed Red White and Blue, just the wrong

order. And since no-one proof reads anything at all, so it stays.

[johnnyfins]

10. The word day is not centered

The stars and what look like russian flags are clearly meant to separate the text from the DoD seal.

They could have used single gold lines on either side of the stars, to match the gold in the seal. They tried to get cute, but there is enough RWB in the graphic. The flag should be the focal point. The DoD seal os too small as well. IMHO.

[littlemissmartypants]

11. I'm hopeful...

It's an example of Malicious Compliance. But it's more likely idiocy.

❤️

[Canada Kid]

12. OOPS!!

The guy who did this poster is now swimming in the Potomic with 2 cinder blocks attached to his ankles!

[JHB]

13. It's not as if Quality was exactly Job One with them before, either

[Attilatheblond]

14. Is there a DU betting pool on Hegseth Gone date?

[vapor2]

42. Who will go first, RFK jr or Hegseth?

[Attilatheblond]

43. Hegseth! Somebody has to pay a price for Trump's delusion of a big beautiful parade saluting HIM being shattered

And we know Trump is incapable of any sort of self examination that might lead to growth and he will never take responsibility for his part in any debacle.

[usonian]

16. I do fakes THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY

No ChatGOP.



Replace humans with chatbots, will you?

All my FAFO flags use the Rooskie flag as background.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219770873

Do you think they're stealing them?

[cadoman]

17. that is not our flag krasnov!!!

You fucking piece of shit!!!

He is OPENLY SIGNALING ALLEGIANCE TO A FOREIGN NATION!! Congress where are you!??!

[DSandra]

26. You can't say that we weren't warned...

Look at all the dismissal of Trump's ties with Russia from his first term. Voters seemingly don't care about voting for a Russian asset.

[Nictuku]

18. Wow... just wow.

[IronLionZion]

19. Best and brightest most qualified America has to offer. They don't make mistakes.

We know which country they are loyal to

[ProfessorGAC]

20. I Don't Know

Those look like someone's idea for the ribbons at the top of military medals to me.
My dad's Medical Corps service medals looked like that. (Occupation troops in Italy after WW2. )
I think incompetence easily explains them not realizing those looked like Russian flags for me.

[republianmushroom]

21. trump has been kissing Putins ass for many years.

[twodogsbarking]

23. Russian flag? At least it wasn't serious, like wearing a tan suit.

[Martin68]

24. Un-fucking-believable.

[Magoo48]

28. Of course, he's Agent Orange.

[hamsterjill]

29. I can't believe the comments here excusing this.

At the very minimum, once made aware of it, it should be taken down immediately.

They know what they're doing. They just think the rest of us are too stupid to notice.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

30. trump works for russia and so had the Russian flag on this post

Link to tweet

Dear Department of Defense, Are the two Russian flags on the image intended to show that the USA is now a Russian province, administered by Provincial Governor Donald Trump?

[BoRaGard]

31. treasonous G.O.P. wanktoids

[dobleremolque]

33. I have no doubt that this is a subtle brush of the Trump's and Hegseth's combined lips across

Vladimir Putin's ass.

But a lot of countries designate red, white, and blue as their national colors. There are different protocols to display those colors.

I learned this through personal embarrassment years ago, when I confused U.S. bunting with French bunting when I was asked to decorate a civic club's hall for Independence Day.

This is U.S.bunting, from the center out ..... red, white, and blue, in the usual order in which we refer to our national colors.


This is French bunting, from the center out ... bleu, blanc, et rouge, in the usual order in which the French refer to their national colors.


I only post this because it might help someone avoid the mistake that I made.

I don't care about Russian bunting or what that protocol might be.

[jgmiller]

34. Clearly clueless but more likely just a designer

The couldn't make it red white and blue because the blue bar would disappear into the background and the words are white so the white on top flows from the words and create a sense of an underline and since the blue has to be in the middle the red ends at the bottom.

Still stupid and no oversight but not everything is a dog whistle, sometimes it's just a dumb mistake.

[moniss]

40. Looks like anything DOD posts passes through the Russians for approval first. nt

[ShazzieB]

45. Wow, that was one hell of a boner!

[Gimpyknee]

46. Much ado about nothing

[Jack Valentino]

47. SORRY, but I DON'T SEE ANY RUSSIAN FLAG on that graphic....

Poor color choices? I guess so.... but the stories claiming that the DOD posted a Russian Flag
on their message are very clearly a huge stretch. The American flag is featured very prominently here,
and there IS no other "flag" on the post.


There is so much obvious HORROR coming out of the second coming of Trump,
all we need to do is report the undisputed TRUTHs....

No need to make up SHIT like this.

(Did some graphic artists deliberately insert colors from the Russian flag on this post?
Maybe-- maybe not--- but they didn't post any "Russian flag" as all the headlines have read.)


Manufactured BULLSHIT like this does not help our cause. The truth is bad enough...