Donald Trump has continued to insist that if he is elected back into the White House in 2024, he would be able to end the war between Russia and Ukraine immediately, making his most recent promise at the Turning Point Action Conference this week.
The former president managed to turn heads somewhat when he suggested that if Russian President Vladimir Putin didn't make a peace deal "we're going to give him a lot. We're going to [give Ukraine] more than they ever got if we have to.
"I will have the deal done in one day. One day," he said.
However, despite his seemingly more bombastic attitude toward Moscow, a photo circulated online this week suggesting that others still believed he had a particularly servile relationship with Putin.
The Claim
A Reddit post by user OliverOnThreads, posted on July 19, 2023, included a photo of a screengrab of an Instagram post with a picture of what looked like a Hollywood Walk of Fame star, graffitied over with "Putins [sic] b****".
The post included the message: "Trump's star on Hollywood Walk of Fame was vandalized again."
OliverOnThreads wrote on Reddit: "No lie detected."
The Facts
Trump's relationship with Putin has been widely examined, but his words this week, threatening further military action against Russia should Putin not cooperate in his theoretical plans for a peace deal, struck a particularly brisk tone.
By all accounts, it appeared that the former president's views toward Russia had hardened, making the image on Reddit, claimed to be Trump's Hollywood Walk of Fame star, seem slightly incongruous.
While the image was indeed of Trump's star on the walk, it was not taken recently.
The incident was reported in 2019, with celebrity gossip site TMZ alleging it had obtained footage of the culprits defacing the tribute. The star was cleaned up a few hours later.
The post on Reddit (included without this additional context) may therefore misleadingly suggest the defacing took place recently, which isn't accurate.
It's not the only time that Trump's spot on the Walk of Fame has been targeted. In 2018, a PETA worker alleged he was fired from the animal rights organization after he poured fake blood on the star.
The same year, it was vandalized again by someone using a pickaxe. KNBC reporter Jonathan Gonzalez tweeted that it's believed the vandal called the police himself and left before they arrived, though LAPD could not confirm that to Newsweek.
The Ruling
Needs Context.
While Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was vandalized with the graffiti "Putins b****", it did not happen recently, which was not explained in the Reddit post.
The star was defaced with the graffiti in 2019, one of a number of occasions it was targeted while Trump was president.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team
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