In a pair of quickly deleted tweets Friday afternoon, Vice President Mike Pence expressed support for Israel — by using the Nicaraguan flag emoji.
Both posts — one expressing “support for the Jewish people” and another with a link to Pence’s remarks to the Republican Jewish Coalition — were deleted but remain accessible via the Internet Archive.
While the Nicaraguan and Israeli flags both feature horizontal blue stripes on a white background, the former features the Nicaraguan coat of arms in the middle, while the latter features a Star of David.
Twitter users were quick to poke fun at the mix-up.
Someone please tell the Pence social media team that’s the flag of Nicaragua, not Israel pic.twitter.com/6KpfsCOCV6
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) February 25, 2017
Betsy Devos must’ve taught Mike Pence about geography bc that’s definitely the flag for Nicaragua, not Israel. pic.twitter.com/gKvAyXyKHN
— nañi (@pettyblackgirI) February 25, 2017
Everybody catch that VP Mike Pence doesn’t know what the Israeli flag looks like? #Nicaragua pic.twitter.com/TlLKn7oApX
— Mairav Zonszein (@MairavZ) February 25, 2017
Easy mistake I guess — ?? v ??. But I don’t think the @VP was saying he was standing with Nicaragua
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 25, 2017
It’s a false flag operation. https://t.co/r0ra75dARm
— Frank Polek (@fpolek) February 25, 2017
?? FALSE ?? FLAG ??
— Scott Bixby (@scottbix) February 25, 2017
I especially liked the part where he equated “the Jewish People” with Israel.
Coat of arms vs. Star of David.
The symbolization is easily confused with the toxic Trump/Netanyahu combination in power.
Maybe Pence’s predecessor, the incomparable Dan Quayle, can brush him up on his Latin American skillsets?
Those pesky illegal Palestinian immigrants will be deported …
“Paging Oliver North, Paging Oliver North”