In the official account of the US Republican Party on social network X, a photo of Donald Trump appeared against the background of a car, under which it was written: "A big, beautiful bill will help bring back the great American car." However, social media users quickly found out: the car in the picture is not at all a sample of the American automotive industry, but the Soviet VAZ-2101, better known as Zhiguli or Lada 1200.
An automatic note appeared under the post, added by the X platform based on user comments: "The photo shows a VAZ-2101 - a Soviet-made car."
Auto expert Artem Bobtsov, in an interview with RBC, noted that the picture may indeed be either a VAZ-2101 or a Fiat 124 - an Italian car on the basis of which Zhiguli could be created. Nevertheless, none of these cars has anything to do with the American auto industry, which caused a wave of jokes and ironic comments. Users talked about an "unexpected round of rapprochement between the USA and Russia" and the "great return of the kopeck."
Maxim Kadakov, editor-in-chief of the magazine "Za Rulem", suggested that the designers of the US Republican Party used a stock photo from the Internet to avoid legal conflicts with auto concerns. According to him, the car depicted is probably from the Hungarian market and "chosen for the image, no matter what."
Read materials on the topic:
With Italian parts: VAZ-2101 1970 model appeared for sale in the Samara region
Kopeck for kopecks: a 1975 VAZ-2101 with a mileage of only 7 kilometers is being sold in Latvia