--- title: Donald Trump Jr. Skittle Tweet: Photographer Was a Refugee description: David Kittos says the image was used without his permission canonical: https://time.com/4502194/donald-trump-jr-skittles-refugees-photographer/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-20T22:54:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:35.596Z article:section: Politics og:title: Photographer Behind Donald Trump Jr.'s Skittle Tweet Was a Refugee og:description: David Kittos says the image was used without his permission og:url: https://time.com/4502194/donald-trump-jr-skittles-refugees-photographer/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f38d9fe4e559911/6988a6f2e20a87bb90a92808/donald-trump-jr-facebook.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3719 og:image:height: 2092 og:image:alt: donald-trump-jr-facebook og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Photographer Behind Donald Trump Jr.'s Skittle Tweet Was a Refugee twitter:description: David Kittos says the image was used without his permission twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f38d9fe4e559911/6988a6f2e20a87bb90a92808/donald-trump-jr-facebook.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Photographer Behind Donald Trump Jr.'s Skittle Tweet Was a Refugee > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Sep 20, 2016 10:54 PM UTC  Donald Trump, Jr. in Cleveland, on July 19, 2016. Donald Trump, Jr. in Cleveland, on July 19, 2016. Jim Watson—AFP/Getty Images by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Sep 20, 2016 10:54 PM UTC The photographer whose image of a bowl of Skittles was tweeted out by [Donald Trump Jr.](http://time.com/4501061/donald-trump-jr-skittles/) in an anti-refugee statement says he did not grant permission for its use — and that he himself was a refugee. The [image](https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/778016283342307328) was used as a metaphor for the refugee situation, with text reading, “If I had a bowl of Skittles and I told you just three would kill you, would you take a handful? That’s our Syrian refugee problem.” Trump Jr. further editorialized in his tweet, saying “Let’s end the politically correct agenda that doesn’t put America first.” The image quickly sent the Internet into an uproar, and Skittles manufacturer Mars tweeted out a statement condemning the comparison: > [](https://twitter.com/MarsGlobal/status/778099719922933760) The photographer of the Skittles, [David Kittos](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37421886?ocid=socialflow%5Ftwitter), tells the BBC he never granted permission for its use, and indeed that he wouldn’t accept payment for it from the Trump camp because he doesn’t support the Republican candidate’s politics. “In 1974, when I was 6 years old, I was a refugee from the Turkish occupation of Cyprus, so I would never approve the use of this image against refugees,” he says. Now a British citizen, Kittos recalls his family’s flight from Cyprus: “We had to leave everything behind overnight. Our property and our possessions.” Kittos says he would like the image to be deleted but doesn’t expect it will. “This is pure greed from them,” he says. “I don’t think they care about my feelings. They should not be stealing an image full stop.” \[[BBC](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37421886?ocid=socialflow%5Ftwitter)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4502194/donald-trump-jr-skittles-refugees-photographer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4502194/donald-trump-jr-skittles-refugees-photographer/"},"headline":"Photographer Behind Donald Trump Jr.'s Skittle Tweet Was a Refugee","datePublished":"2016-09-20T22:54:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:35.596Z","description":"David Kittos says the image was used without his permission","url":"https://time.com/4502194/donald-trump-jr-skittles-refugees-photographer/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f38d9fe4e559911/6988a6f2e20a87bb90a92808/donald-trump-jr-facebook.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f38d9fe4e559911/6988a6f2e20a87bb90a92808/donald-trump-jr-facebook.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"donald-trump-jr-facebook","caption":"Donald Trump, Jr. in Cleveland, on July 19, 2016.","creditText":"Jim Watson—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4502194/donald-trump-jr-skittles-refugees-photographer/","name":"Photographer Behind Donald Trump Jr.'s Skittle Tweet Was a Refugee"}}]}] ```