Fake Photo of Trump With MLK Jr. Rebuked by Civil Rights Leader's Daughter

Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr., rebuked the use of a fake image of her father standing alongside former President Donald Trump on Saturday evening.

Conservative commentator Brigitte Gabriel tweeted a fake photograph showing King Jr. and Trump walking side-by-side, captioned, "Two of our nation's greatest advocates for Civil Rights: MLK and DJT" on Saturday.

The photograph drew condemnation from Bernice King, who has previously spoken out against conservatives attempting to tie her father to their ideology.

Republicans have claimed King Jr. would have been a Trump supporter, despite a lack of evidence tying him to conservative politics. King Jr.'s children have condemned efforts to tie their father to the modern Republican Party since King Jr. expressed support for some left-leaning policy ideas during his lifetime, including voicing critiques about capitalism, a key tenet of the GOP.

"I'm not sure if @Twitter will do anything, but will you help me report this? Enough is enough," King tweeted.

Despite King's opposition to the use of her father's likeness, the photo had not been taken down by Sunday morning. Newsweek reached out to King and Gabriel for comment.

Many others also condemned the image on Twitter.

"They co-opt MLK's words & likeness just as they enabled the racist who killed MLK to further their evil agenda White supremacy is a sickness & all (+ racial gatekeepers) who drink from its cup are riddled with its evil. Likening Trump to MLK is a deliberate & an egregious insult," tweeted lawyer and political commentator Dr. Shola Mos-Shogbamimu.

"In order to believe this a person doesn't know real history. It's honestly disrespectful," tweeted two-time Super Bowl champion Torrey Smith.

Historian Harvey J. Kaye described the photograph as representing a "perverse and inane sense of history."

Bernice King has previously spoken out against efforts to tie her father's image to that of Trump after the former president's 2020 campaign released an advertisement using photos of King Jr.

"I find President Trump's use of my father's image in his political ad beyond insulting and not reflective of #MLK's commitment to creating the #BelovedCommunity. My father should not be used in ways strongly misaligned with his vision and values, @realDonaldTrump," King tweeted in October 2020.

She continued: "My father was working for an America with leaders who have answered the call to conscience and compassionate action. He said, 'We need leaders not in love with money but in love with justice. Not in love with publicity but in love with humanity... Leaders who can subject their particular egos to the pressing urgencies of the great cause of freedom...a time like this demands great leaders.'"

Was Martin Luther King, Jr. a Republican?

Time magazine reported in January 2020 that King Jr.'s political affiliation largely remains a mystery for scholars, though he had offered praise for Democratic President John F. Kennedy. He had also expressed criticisms toward capitalism, writing in a 1952 letter that he was "much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic."

Still, he did not endorse political candidates and said in 1958 that he was not "inextricably bound to either party."

His children, who have been critics of the modern GOP, however, have said he would not be a supporter of the modern Republican Party.

His son, Martin Luther King III, said in a 2008 statement to the Associated Press that it is "disingenuous" to say his father was a Republican.

"There is certainly no evidence that he ever even voted for a Republican. It is even more outrageous to suggest that he would support the Republican Party of today, which has spent so much time and effort trying to suppress African American votes in Florida and many other states," he said.