OOPS... About That Skittles Meme...

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump listens as his son Don Trump, foreground, speaks at a campaign rally in New Orleans, Friday, March 4, 2016. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

And these things keep happening.

The internet blew up last night, with #Skittles trending on Twitter, over a meme released by Donald Trump Jr., as he compared immigrants to poisoned Skittles.

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Our Joe Cunningham touched on the subject earlier today.

Now, the Washington Times is reporting that the photographer responsible for the photo of the big bowl of rainbow-colored candies is speaking up.

And he is not amused.

The photographer behind the Skittles photo used by Donald Trump Jr. to explain the “Syrian refugee problem” was once a refugee himself and says his photo was used without his permission.

David Kittos, 48, from England, said he posted the image on Flickr in January 2010, only to find that it had been used to support the Trump campaign.

“I have never put this image up for sale,” Mr. Kittos told the BBC. “This was not done with my permission, I don’t support Trump’s politics and I would never take his money to use it.”

“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.”

“I was thinking about getting lawyers involved but I don’t know if I have the patience,” he said. “This isn’t about the money for me. They could have just bought a cheap image from a micro stock library. This is pure greed from them. I don’t think they care about my feelings. They should not be stealing an image full stop.”

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Frankly, I hope he doesn’t waste his time. It’s not that big of a deal, and more than likely, the Trumps didn’t create the meme. It’s more likely that Junior just picked it up somewhere else and forwarded it.

This is just more fodder for a disastrous election year.

Expect it to become more frantic, the closer we get to November.

In the meantime, I do appreciate the comment from Wrigley, the company that owns Skittles.

“Skittles are candy. Refugees are people. We don’t feel it is an appropriate analogy.”

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