A Thai influencer has angered Republicans and US law enforcement officers by posting an image of a Thai solider kicking President Donald Trump in a political meme posted on his Facebook page Saturday.
A meme depicting a Thai solider kicking Donald Trump following the President's statement Friday night on the Thai-Cambodia ceasefire (Source: From Facebook / DailyGoat.com)
The post also angered thousands of Cambodians since the image takes place in front of images of the Angkor Wat, a Cambodian holy site, following renewed strikes by the Thai military on Cambodia earlier this morning.
Friday, President Trump announced on Truth Social that he had spoken with both leaders of Cambodia and Thailand, who had assured him that a ceasefire signed between the two countries in October was still in place. These phone calls followed five days of renewed conflict marked by F-16 airstrikes on Cambodia by Thailand, killing dozens.
Saturday morning however, renewed airstrikes from Thai F-16s struck Meteuk Bridge in Pursat Province in Cambodia’s south. These air strikes were followed in the afternoon by shelling of a pagoda in the north later in the afternoon.
Thai military jets bomb a residential area in Pursat Province Saturday morning (Source: Cambodian government / DailyGoat.com)
Contradicting President Trump’s statement the previous evening, Prime Minister Anutin maintained in a statement that Thailand would continue with airstrikes until it felt safe.
Referring to President Trump’s intervention, Anutin said: “If Cambodia wants a ceasefire, it must ask Thailand directly, not run to other countries’ leaders to negotiate … we should not have outsiders telling us about this. Suddenly someone comes and says there should be a ceasefire at ten tonight. Simply put, that is impossible.”
The meme of the soldier kicking Trump in the head is seen by many in the Republican administration of adding violent fuel to Anutin’s incendiary statement on Saturday evening. Thailand and the US have been allies for nearly two centuries.
“Why would the Thais want to piss off one of their most powerful allies in the world? It’s bizarre,” said one intelligence analyst in a phone call in an interview on background.
The influencer who posted the provocative meme is called Manassatian Luprasert who has 63,000 Facebook followers. By Saturday evening, the post was going viral with 19,000 shares and 122,000 likes.
The meme was accompanied by a comment from Luprasert making fun of President Trump's statement that the Thai military vehicle blown up in a landmine accident was an "accident".
"This post was an accident. I did not intend to post it," wrote Luprasert in Thai.
Others argue the post could constitute incitement of violence to a sitting US President, an offense under U.S. law.
John Anthony is an American law enforcement official and politician who served as a police officer and the sheriff of Kendall County, Illinois prior to becoming a member of House of Representatives. He is the host of Black & Right, a popular US political talkshow in the Northwest. Anthony was critical of the meme and said it may spark further investigation.
“This is something that should be looked carefully at by law enforcement and especially by the secret service in my opinion,” said Anthony. "Especially following the horrifying attempt on the President's life during the election campaign and the recent assasination of Charlie Kirk, I don't think we can afford to take anything of this kind lightly at all now."
Another US Navy source who works at the Pentagon said in an interview on background that in his view the post constituted political violence and should be looked at closely.
This is the second controversy to blow up around the Thai-Cambodian conflict by a Thai influencer this year. In September, Gun Jompalang was the subject of domestic and international criticism for playing sounds over 120 decibels, higher than the legal limit, into a residential area in northern Cambodia.