Donald Trump Jr’s tweet comparing Skittles to refugees has caused a furore on social media.
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The oldest son of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump posted an image of a bowl of the colorful sweets with a line of text reading, “If I had a bowl of skittles and I told you just three would kill you. Would you take a handful?” the graphic asked.
Donald Trump has long called for anti-immigrant and anti-refugee policies such as building a border wall between the US and Mexico, implementing a total ban on Muslim immigration, overseeing the mass deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants, and creating a no-admittance policy for Syrian refugees into the United States over fears of terrorism concerns.
He tweeted: “Let’s end the politically correct agenda that doesn’t put America first”.
The 48-year-old Kittos said he’s never offered the photo for sale, and he would never agree to sell it to Trump.
“This image says it all”.
However, in addition to the obvious problem of comparing people fleeing war and violence to a bowl of candy, the math behind the meme is off – way, way off.
Kittos, a British citizen who was born in Cyprus, told the BBC that his image was used without his permission.
“This was six years ago when there were no Syrian refugees at the time and it was never done with the intention of spreading a political message. I don’t support Trump’s politics and I would never take his money to use it”.
“This isn’t about the money for me”, Kittos said. “We don’t feel it’s an appropriate analogy”, said Denise Young, the company’s vice president of corporate affairs. “They could have just bought a cheap image from a micro stock library”, Kittos said.
Wrigley Americas, the parent company of Skittles, distanced itself from the tweet in a short statement provided to NBC News.
He told the BBC that the campaign’s use of the photograph free of charge amounted to “pure greed” and that he hoped the campaign would delete the tweet. “They should not be stealing an image full stop”.
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“I think I can count on one hand the number of crimes of any significance that I’ve heard have been committed by refugees”, Lavinia Limón, president of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, told the Atlantic in 2015.
