Skittles Pic Trump Jr. Used Was Taken by Ex-Refugee

Ironic
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 20, 2016 12:46 PM CDT
Ex-Refugee Photog: Trump Jr. Stole My Skittles Pic
Donald Trump Jr. now has more troubles on the Skittles photo front.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Donald Trump Jr.'s tweet comparing Syrian refugees to Skittles didn't go over well with the public, the candymaker, and now, the UK photographer who took the photo he says Trump stole for his tweet, the BBC reports. David Kittos says he took the pic of the colorful candies in 2010 while testing a lighting technique and posted it on Flickr, and the fact that Trump used it to push his political agenda is particularly bothersome to the 48-year-old photographer for a compelling reason. "In 1974, when I was 6 years old, I was a refugee from the Turkish occupation of Cyprus, so I would never approve the use of this image against refugees," he says, adding that the image has never even been for sale.

"This was not done with my permission, I don't support his politics, and I would never take his money to use it," he says. Kittos, a Greek Cypriot who's now a British citizen, recalls living in Cyprus under the hand of the Turkish military as a youngster and how "we had to leave everything behind overnight." He says he wants the Trumps to stop using his image, but he doesn't know if it's worth his time and effort to take legal action against what he calls their "pure greed." "They should not be stealing an image, full stop," he says. (More Donald Trump Jr. stories.)

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