After Donald Trump heard that The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists’ (SAG-AFTRA) disciplinary committee was holding a hearing to revoke his membership, he issued a letter of resignation.
The letter said in part, “This letter is to inform you of my immediate exit from SAG-AFTRA. You have done nothing for me.” Trump signed the letter “President Donald J. Trump”.
SAG-AFTRA published the letter online on Thursday and received wide response on Twitter, drawing attention to the seal used by Trump.
The statement
One Twitter user wrote on Thursday: “Trump calls himself ‘president’ and uses the presidential seal as a former president, ‘in a tweet that received more than 2,000 likes and nearly 1,000 retweets.
Trump calls himself ‘president’ and uses the presidential seal as a former president
– PoliticsVideoChannel (@politvidchannel) February 4, 2021
The facts
At the top of Trump’s letter to SAG-AFTRA is a seal, surrounded by the words ‘The Office of Donald J. Trump’.
Santiago Mayer, executive director of tomorrow’s nonprofit voters, tweeted Thursday night, “I do not know who needs to hear this, but using President Seal if you are not the president is illegal,” and received more than 40,000 likes and more than 6,000 retweets.
I do not know who should hear it, but it is illegal to use the President Seal if you are not the President.
– Santiago Mayer (@santiagomayer_) February 4, 2021
He tweeted this while “Presidential Seal” was trending Thursday because of Trump’s letter.
The seal that Trump used is not the official presidential seal. However, it looks pretty similar.
One Twitter user responded to Mayer’s tweet by posting photos comparing the presidential seal, the US Seal and Trump’s seal.
“This is not the presidential seal,” the user wrote.
The presidential seal and Trump’s seal contain the Latin “E pluribus unum” and an eagle in the middle with its claws holding an olive branch and 13 arrows.
Despite the similarities, there are differences. One difference is that the presidential seal contains stars that surround it, while Trump’s seal has only three stars at the bottom.
The government
Untrue.
Donald Trump did not use the presidential seal in his resignation letter to SAG-AFTRA.
He uses his own stamp for ‘The Office of Donald J. Trump’ after recently setting up the former president’s office in Florida.
Trump’s seal looks similar to the presidential seal, but contains differences.
Doug Mills-Pool / Getty Images