Bizarre painting of Trump dressed as Independence-era patriot compared to notorious traitor Benedict Arnold

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A tweet by the Arizona Republican Party of a portrait of Donald Trump painted in colonial style has triggered a flurry of comments from Twitter users who are comparing the outgoing president to Benedict Arnold, a disgraced Revolutionary War turncoat.

The painting shows Mr Trump wearing a similar uniform as Arnold, holding a gun in his right hand and the American flag in the left, with a White House-like structure in the background, and an eagle fluttering behind him.  

The Arizona GOP did not mention the name of the artist but a report by HuffPost quoting Boing Boing mentions that the portrait belongs to artist Lyudmila Tomova and is priced at $5000 on her official website.

The Arizona GOP handle, that did not mention anything in the caption, likely shared the art because it shows Mr Trump as a modern-day American hero, but many in the replies mentioned how they see a striking resemblance between him and Arnold, who has been called “America’s number one traitor” because he switched sides with the British.

The tweet has over 12 thousand retweets and has been quoted almost 5 thousand times.

A Twitter user Amee Vanderpool wrote: “Hats off to the @AZGOP for pointing out how much Trump resembles Benedict Arnold both literally and figuratively.”

Several users also found an old video of Mr Trump getting scared of an eagle.

A user Dennis Perkins wrote: “Was this painted when he was dodging the Vietnam draft, when he mocked John McCain's service, when he refused to say a word about Putin's bounties on US troops, or when he called US service members "suckers" and "losers"?”

Some users also talked about how they feel the two are different. Writer Frank Lesser wrote: “The only Revolutionary War figure you can compare him to is Benedict Arnold, and even that's unfair because at least that traitor actually served in the military.”