Journalist pranks top Republicans into sharing military uniform-clad picture of JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald

Three top Republicans are the newest victims of Klippenstein — a known pranker of celebrities

Picture dated 22 November 1963 of US President John F Kennedy’s murderer Lee Harvey Oswald during a press conference after his arrest (AFP via Getty Images)

An American journalist, who has a history of pranking public figures, has tricked high-ranking Republicans into sharing a picture of president John F Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, on Memorial Day.

Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz, Matt Schlapp, and Dinesh D'Souza were tricked by The Intercept journalist Ken Klippenstein into tweeting the portrait of Oswald in a military uniform.

He managed to convince the three Republicans that the man in the picture was his grandfather — an army veteran.

"Congressman, my grandpa's a big fan of yours and is a veteran, he would be thrilled if you could RT this photo of him for Memorial Day. Here he is as a young Private First Class," Mr Klippenstein shared the tweet with an accompanying photo of young Oswald.

He tagged the Republicans in his tweet separately.

Mr Schlapp responded to the prank tweet by saying: “Wow @kenklippenstein it's my honour to retweet the photo of a veteran on a day we remember his fallen friends. God bless your grandfather.”

Mr Gaetz retweeted the picture with the American flag emoji, while Indian-American politician Mr D'Souza also shared the tweet as it is.

The tweets and screenshots of the tweets were part of the top trends on Memorial Day as Lee Harvey Oswald trended on Twitter. Several Twitter users mocked the Republicans for their gullibility.

Mr Schlapp was also mocked for his previous tweet in which he took a jibe at Kamala Harris by saying that “they don’t even know what Memorial Day is” and that “woke staff” in the White House is unattached from America.

Political commentator Candace Owens ended up getting lampooned on social media after she hit out at the journalist for going too far to get laughs by “photoshopping murderers” in the uniform of war veterans.

"It is not 'political correctness' to have a soul and modicum of decency. Reminder: these men DIED - the majority of them on foreign soil - so you could be free," she tweeted targeting Klippenstein. "You do not photoshop murderers into their uniforms so you can have a laugh."

But social media users were quick to point out that the picture was not photoshopped and it was in fact Oswald’s picture from the days when he was a US Marine.

"I think I made Candace Owens short circuit lmao," Klippenstein replied to Ms Ownens.

In 2019, Klippenstein sent out a tweet to Iowa congressman Steve King saying: “Sir, can I get a retweet for my uncle Col Nathan Jessup, he’s in the marines and is spending the 4th overseas keeping our nation safe.”

Klippenstein had attached a photo of actor Jack Nicholson playing the character of Colonel Nathan Jessup in the 1992 film A Few Good Men, with his tweet. The congressman retweeted him with the message: “Colonel Jessup and all your Marines: God bless you all. You have our back and millions of us have yours!”

Klippenstein earlier tricked feminist author and former adviser to President Bill Clinton, Naomi Wolf, into sharing the picture of porn star Johnny Sins with an anti-vaccine quote over it.

In another instance, he tricked Richard Grenell, former acting director of national intelligence and war hawk, into thanking convicted Vietnam War criminal William Calley.