Donald Trump, right, and the controversial image he tweeted, left. (Photos: Twitter; David Zalubowski/AP)

Donald Trump supporters say the firestorm over a tweet that featured the Star of David next to raining money and Hillary Clinton was driven by the media’s political correctness.

But the image — which critics called anti-Semitic — appears to have been taken from an online neo-Nazi message board.

According to Mic.com, the graphic tweeted by the presumptive Republican nominee on Saturday was previously featured on a message board for the alt-right, “a digital movement of neo-Nazis, anti-Semites, and white supremacists.”

The website reported that the image appeared on the message board — called “/pol/” — as early as June 22, over a week before it was published on Trump’s Twitter feed.

The Daily Beast notes that image appeared on Twitter on June 15.





The Trump campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.

The six-pointed star, a symbol of Judaism, was on a backdrop of $100 bills and paired with a Fox News poll in which a majority of respondents described Clinton as corrupt. Next to Clinton’s face was a red Star of David bearing the words “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!”

Two hours after posting the controversial tweet, the brash real estate mogul published a different version featuring a circle with the words “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!” instead of the star, and deleted the original version.

Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager and now a CNN commentator, defended his former boss on Sunday.

“It’s the same star that sheriff’s departments across the country use all over the place to represent law enforcement,” Lewandowski said on CNN’s “State of the Union. “That’s the mainstream media trying to attack Donald Trump for something that really isn’t there.”

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“This is political correctness run amok,” Lewandowski added. “If this would have been a star next to Hillary Clinton that didn’t have the cash behind it, no one would be questioning this.”

It’s not the first time Trump has come under fire for tweeting or retweeting racially charged messages. He once tweeted an image linking GOP rival Jeb Bush to Nazis and twice retweeted a user with the account name “@WhiteGenocideTM.”

But unlike his Star of David message, Trump did not delete that tweet.

“@WhiteGenocideTM: @realDonaldTrump Poor Jeb. I could’ve sworn I saw him outside Trump Tower the other day! pic.twitter.com/e5uLRubqla” — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2016



