Touting Israel ties, Pence says US stands with Nicaragua

US vice president tweets ‘support for the Jewish people,’ accidentally uses Central American county’s volcano, sun and rainbow flag

While his impulsive boss has made innumerable headlines with his outlandish and audacious Twitter use, the cool-headed Vice President Mike Pence has manged to avoid the sort of gaffes and bloopers that Donald Trump seems to invite with each new set of 140 characters.

But this weekend, ahead of a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition where he would praise Israel as America’s “most cherished ally,” Pence appeared to break his social media correctness, accidentally tweeting his support for the Jewish state with an image of the Nicaraguan flag.

In two consecutive tweets, Pence (or a staffer) appeared to confuse the Israeli flag — two blue strips above and below the emblematic Star of David — with that of the Central American country, which features the Nicaraguan coat of arms of a volcano, a sun and a rainbow.

The tweets were deleted soon after.

A tweet by US Vice President Mike Pence accidentally confusing Israel's national flag with that of Nicaragua. (Screen capture: Twitter) — A tweet by US Vice President Mike Pence accidentally confusing Israel’s national flag with that of Nicaragua. (Screen capture: Twitter)

Later, Pence assured the Republican Jewish Coalition that he and Trump would work tirelessly on strengthening the relationship between the two countries.

“If the world knows nothing else, the world will know this: America stands with Israel,” Pence told the group on Friday night. Touting pro-Israel positions that Trump took during the election campaign, Pence said the Republican administration was “assessing” whether to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem, he said, and has put Iran “on notice.”

.@POTUS Trump and I stand with Israel because her cause is our cause, her values are our values, and her fight is our fight. #RJC

— Vice President Mike Pence Archived (@VP45) February 25, 2017

The Twitter diplomacy blunder was reminiscent of a similar goof made by Israel’s opposition leader, Isaac Herzog, when he was quick to offer his congratulations to the winning country in the Euro 2016 soccer championship: Afghanistan.

A a July 2016 tweet in which opposition leader Isaac Herzog posted the Afghan flag instead of the Portuguese flag (screen capture: Twitter)

Herzog used an Afghan flag to accompany a tweet reading “Viva Portugal” to celebrate the country’s unexpected 1-0 win over France in the July 2006 European final in Paris.

He quickly deleted his tweet and replaced it with one showing the Portuguese flag, but, like in Pence’s case, not before it was captured by hawk-eyed social media jockeys for the world to mock.

Raoul Wootliff contributed to this report.