‘Literally copied from Putin’: Intelligence expert blasts Trump’s RNC performance

Intelligence and counterterrorism expert Malcolm Nance is criticizing President Donald Trump’s Republican National Convention performance from Tuesday night, noting the extreme similarity to images of Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin.

President Trump inappropriately if not illegally used uniformed members of the U.S. Military in video of him walking in the White House to attend a citizenship naturalization ceremony for five immigrants, staged for the RNC. (Ethics experts say the use of the White House for a political campaign is unprecedented, a gross abuse of power, and entirely inappropriate. There are also concerns of violations of the Hatch Act.)

“This entire camera shot is LITERALLY COPIED FROM PUTIN & THE KREMLIN,” Nance, noticing the disturbing parallel,  said on Twitter. “The soldiers, the doors opening, the red carpet.” He called it “disgraceful.”

Here’s a screenshot from video the White House released Tuesday of the naturalization ceremony:

Here’s an image of the Russian Honor Guard opening the doors for President Vladimir Putin.

Nance wasn’t the only one who noticed:

Nance points to this mashup as well:

Here’s the White House’s video. It’s unclear why it needed to begin with the members of the military opening the doors for Trump, or him walking into the room.