Okay, earlier we noted that the shirt those two Trumpers in Ohio were wearing at the rally over the weekend showed up on Russian TV as an example of rising Republican support for Russia and Russia collusion. This was a rabbit hole my colleague Matt Shuham and I couldn’t not go down. So what’s the story? Did they both order it off the same Trumper website? Did the Russians send it to the dudes in Ohio? Or did the Russians see it on social media and whip up their own? Well, I think we’ve solved this mystery.
After a careful analysis, Matt noted that there’s at least one subtle difference. The star just behind the ‘E’ in ‘Democrat’ is more obscured on the Ohio Trumper version than on the version that appears on Russian state TV.
So it seems like it’s scenario number three: some Russian TV producer whipped up his or her own version for this segment after seeing it on social media.
But wait, there’s more. This ecommerce site, which we’d never heard of before, is also selling a version of it. And it appears to be identical to the one that appeared on Russian state TV.
So what is going on here? This part remains unclear. The Ohio Trumper version appeared on Saturday evening and the Russian version popped up seemingly early on Monday or perhaps even Sunday night. Pretty hard to figure it was express mailed to Moscow that quickly. Anyway, the claim of the Ohio Trumpers that they had the shirt printed up themselves would seem to be vindicated.
