S. F-15 jet being shot down over Iran on Friday, kicking off a large search-and-rescue operation to locate the two crew members who ejected from the aircraft. S.
special forces swooped in and evacuated him on Sunday, a timeline Trump confirmed in a post on Truth Social. Hours after the president’s announcement, a pro-Trump X account posted an image of a man in military uniform smiling as he clutched an American flag, surrounded by fellow troops with their arms draped around him. The image, which racked up more than five million views, was shared by at least three prominent GOP officials: Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and New York Rep.
Mike Lawler. However, the image appears to have been generated by artificial intelligence, according to a community note added by users, and multiple online detection tools also indicate with a high degree of certainty that it is not real. All three Republican officials have since deleted their posts.
S. war against Iran, which has engulfed large swaths of the Middle East in violence, leading to thousands of deaths, and multiple recent polls indicate a majority of Americans are opposed to the conflict. The rescued aviators have not been publicly identified.