The presence of individuals who appeared to be U.S. Marines in full uniform at a recent Mar-a-Lago fundraiser for Donald Trump, the presumed 2024 GOP presidential nominee, raised eyebrows for some online, who pointed out that it could constitute illegal behavior.
The images first surfaced on Saturday and were said to have been taken at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. In it, three women in dress attire can be seen posing alongside four men wearing full Marine Corps uniforms, two of them carrying the U.S. and Marine flags, while the other two appear to be holding rifles of some kind.
Ron Filipkowski, a former federal prosecutor and current editor-in-chief for MeidasTouch, was among those who circulated the image on X, formerly Twitter.
As the image circulated, several people chimed in, noting that the men’s presence at the political event in full uniform could be illegal. Some also raised the possibility that the men were not, in fact, real Marines.
“It’s either illegal per UCMJ [Uniform Code of Military Justice], or they aren’t marines which would be weird,” former Representative Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican, wrote in a post.
“I assume these aren’t real Marines, but rather Trump crisis actors,” The Bulwark editor-at-large Bill Kristol wrote in his post.
“Military twitter: are these real Marines?” Allison Gill, host of the Mueller, She Wrote podcast, asked via the show’s X account. “Their bearing seems off, but I don’t know Marine uniforms.”
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
“Whatever those ‘Marines’ were doing at Mar A Lago, both choices below are really bad,” filmmaker Melissa J. Peltier wrote, referring to another user’s suggestion that the men were either breaking the UCMJ or pretending to be Marines, a practice known as “stolen valor.”
Under Department of Defense (DOD) regulations, active-duty military members are not prohibited from attending political events if they choose to, but they are not allowed to do so in their uniforms.
“It is DOD policy to encourage members of the armed forces to carry out the obligations of citizenship while keeping with the traditional concept that members on active duty should not engage in partisan political activity,” the regulation reads. “All members of the armed forces, including active-duty members, members of the reserve components not on active duty, and retired members are prohibited from wearing military uniforms at political campaign or election events.”
Stolen valor is also a third-degree felony under Florida state law, which bars individuals from “[misrepresenting] himself or herself as a member or veteran of the United States Air Force, United States Army, United States Coast Guard, United States Marine Corps, United States Navy, United States Space Force, or National Guard.”
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s office via email for comment on Saturday afternoon.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.