Donald Trump unofficially kicked off open season for the Republican primaries when he became one of the first candidates to blame an intern for a Twitter gaffe.

This tried-and-true political maneuver occurred after a historian noticed that Trump’s latest campaign picture included images of German Waffen-SS troops marching on the White House lawn.

The tweet, sent from @realDonaldTrump, showed a picture of Trump’s face superimposed onto the stars of the American flag, beside a picture of soldiers marching on the White House lawn.

John Schindler, a military historian, noticed the picture on Twitter when a follower asked him if it might contain German, not American soldiers.

“It’s actually much worse than that, it’s Waffen-SS . . . the people who ran the death camps,” he said.

Schindler, who got his PhD in history from McMaster, identified them by their helmets and an eagle insignia on their arm.

“Some people can tell a ’56 Chevy from a ’57 easily, some of us can tell German uniforms easily,” Schindler said.

After deleting the picture from Twitter, a spokesperson from Trump’s camp reached out to CNN to blame the mishap on an intern.

"Mr. Trump has been in Charlottesville, Virginia, all day at the opening of a development. A young intern created and posted the image and did not see the very faded figures within the flag of the stock photo," Michael Cohen, the executive vice president of Trump Organization, told CNN in an email. "The intern apologized and immediately deleted the tweet."

The picture actually comes from a stock photo featuring actors dressed as soldiers. Tim McDonnell, from Mother Jones, tracked down the photographer George Cairns, who confirmed the picture featured actors dressed in Waffen-SS uniforms.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Read more about: