Donald Trump Jr.’s dehumanizing comparison of Syrian refugees to a bowl of hypothetically fatal Skittles has already garnered widespread criticism on the internet and a pitch-perfect reaction from the company that makes the candy. But perhaps the most delicious response yet is from the man whose photograph was featured in the tweet that caused all the uproar.
Here’s the tweet, sent by one of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s sons on Sept. 19:
And here’s the irony: The man who took the picture of the Skittles, photographer David Kittos from Guildford, UK, reportedly was a refugee himself. And he says the Trump campaign was unauthorized to use his copyrighted photograph.
Kittos tells the BBC he shot the photograph back in January 2010 to test out an off-camera flash effect on a product shoot, with no political message intended. He later posted the photo on his Flickr account. The Flickr page of the photo clearly indicates “all rights reserved.”
Given the Republican nominee’s stance toward refugees, Kittos says he would never have granted permission for his image to be used by the Trump campaign.
“I am now a British citizen but I am Greek-Cypriot by birth and in 1974 I was a refugee because of the Turkish occupation,” he told the BBC. “I was six years old. We lived in the area of Cyprus that is now under Turkish military control. We had to leave everything behind overnight. Our property and our possessions.”