The Washington Post released a damning report over the holiday weekend that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been ordering the military to commit war crimes in the Caribbean. Hegseth responded by posting to X what appeared to be an AI-generated meme of the children’s book character Franklin shooting at people in boats. And now AI-generated Franklins have swamped social media, and they’re coming from both sides of the political aisle.

“For your Christmas wish list…” Hegseth wrote on X, with an image that showed the Franklin character firing from a helicopter at people in boats down below .

The Franklin the Turtle books were written by Canadian author Paulette Bourgeois and illustrated by Brenda Clark, debuting in 1986. The character has also been adapted for TV movies and a series. In

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