Piero Maranon-Velazco recently took the stage with Steve Bannon and Mike Lindell at the Force Multipliers Conference in Las Vegas this week on Lindell’s Frank Speech TV platform via Mediaite.
It has been noted that in a clip that has gone viral among Trump opponents, Maranon told the crowd he was kicked out” of the military over a photo of former President Donald Trump:
They exposed the case of an Army private that got kicked out of the military for having a picture of President Trump in his phone. I am that private.
Maranon’s case has been noted by a pair of Arizona lawmakers who have appeared on Bannon’s show, but even by Maranon’s own telling in a past interview his claim isn’t quite the full story. He explained his side of one of the incidents that were subjects of complaints:
In one instance, Maranon and other trainees were in formation. There is a procedure called “covering,” whereby soldiers set their distance from one another so that they are properly spaced and orderly. It involves raising your left hand to the side to distance yourself properly from the soldier beside you. Soldiers do the same for those in front of them. The trainees were fooling around, and one commented it was like doing the Nazi salute. Maranon, who has had direct experience with repressive regimes in his country of origin, admonished the trainee stating and then showing them that it was the right hand that was used in the Nazi salute. For that, Maranon was allegedly reported without his knowledge for being a Nazi by a trainee who said he was Jewish.
The Trump photo is what Maranon claims was the impetus for increased scrutiny, and he “believes” he was reported over it:
In another instance, early in his training, his phone was being monitored by other trainees at a charging station while he attended religious services. The screen background on his phone is set to display a photo of President Trump. “The females in charge of the phones saw this,” said Maranon, “And told me I was a racist, a Nazi, and a white supremacist, and this is without mentioning the insults I received from the black females toward my wife for being white. I believe my fellow trainees began to target me because of these things.” He believes he was reported, and that was where the targeted harassment began.
