The Unsolved Mystery of Ron DeSantis’ Alleged Wartime Photo

He says he was deployed to Iraq. We have no real reason to believe otherwise. But is the Governor of Florida lying about this photo?

A few weeks back, I was reading an old article about Ron DeSantis from his time campaigning in Florida, and I came across this photograph.

It, along with its caption (“DeSantis poses for a photo in Iraq. Courtesy of the Ron DeSantis campaign”), struck me as somewhat odd.

You ask why, dear Reader?

Well, it’s because I worked in Iraq for many years.

Spending a long while in any place is bound to imbue ones’ memories with a certain quality, such that photographs from that time and place evoke immediate recognition many years later.

However, in this photo, supposedly taken in Iraq, there were several things I couldn’t reconcile; various elements which confused me. I thought about them, then wrote out my thoughts in a thread on Twitter:

• I had a job where I worked on these vehicles in Iraq. It’s unusual to see one without any markings. In fact, this HMMWV looks so clean, it could be fresh from a factory.
• The right mirror was not angled-it wasn’t being driven?
• Same with his Kevlar and boots, which show no signs of…