President Trump’s former campaign adviser Roger Stone shared an image on social media depicting himself, the president and several people involved or associated with the Trump administration wearing swastika-decorated spacesuits.
Shared on Instagram, the since-deleted post showed seven people — Mr. Trump; Mr. Stone; Vice President Mike Pence; White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders; Rep. Devin Nunes, California Republican; Mr. Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani; and Fox News host Sean Hannity — as members of the Space Force, the president’s proposed sixth military branch.
Each person was depicted wearing an orange spacesuit adorned with a patch that combines the letters “S” and “F” to form a swastika, and a close-up of the emblem was prominently displayed in the corner of the image in an insert near Mr. Giuliani’s head.
“I love this — proud to be in this crew,” Mr. Stone captioned the Instagram post.
Mr. Stone subsequently deleted the image and published another post Tuesday apologizing.
“Last night I posted an image attacking me and other supporters of the President that was sent to me by a hater. I did so to mock them . I did not notice the image had a swastika in the corner . When It was brought to my attention I deleted it - so u libtards who are frothing at the mouth can stop sending insulting comments will only get u blocked,” Mr. Stone wrote.
Mr. Stone, 65, served as an early adviser to Mr. Trump’s presidential election campaign. He previously ran a lobbying firm alongside Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman currently on trial for tax and bank fraud charges, and is reportedly being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his investigation into the 2016 election.
Mr. Stone told The Washington Times last year that he communicated privately during the 2016 presidential race with Guccifer 2.0, an online persona that U.S. federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies have accused of interfering in the election on behalf of the Russian government, but he denied any wrongdoing.
Mr. Mueller’s office has since contacted at least seven people associated with Mr. Stone as part of the special counsel’s investigation into Russia’s election meddling, according to multiple news reports.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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