By Nathan Layne
(Reuters) – Donald Trump removed a video posted to his Truth Social account that referred to a “unified Reich” after President Joe BidenThe campaign and others have criticized the use of language often associated with the Nazi regime.
The 30-second video, posted Monday afternoon, was no longer available on the website as of Tuesday morning. A person familiar with the matter confirmed that the post had been removed from the site.
The video presents a positive view of the country if the Republican presidential nominee beat Biden in November, with hypothetical newspaper headlines about a booming economy and an immigration crackdown at the southern border.
In two places in the video, text under a larger title reads: “INDUSTRIAL FORCE SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED…DRIVEN BY THE CREATION OF A UNIFIED REICH.” The text is somewhat blurry, making it difficult to make out at first glance.
Trump made a series of incendiary remarks on the campaign trail, calling his political enemies “vermin” and saying immigrants who entered the country illegally were “poisoning the blood of our country.” The moves drew sharp criticism from Democrats and some historians, who said they echoed Nazi rhetoric.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, said in a statement Monday that the video was created by someone outside the campaign and shared by a staffer who did not notice the use of the word “Reich » before publishing it.
She said Trump, who is facing a criminal trial in New York for paying money to a porn star, was in court at the time. He did not respond to a question about the video shouted by a reporter as he walked into court Tuesday.
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Biden’s campaign criticized the use of a word often associated with Nazi Germany’s Third Reich under Adolf Hitler.
“America, stop scrolling and pay attention. Donald Trump is not playing a game; he is telling America exactly what he intends to do if he returns to power: rule as a dictator over a ‘unified Reich,'” Biden campaign spokesman James Singer said.
Singer also accused Trump of “repeating” “Mein Kampf,” Hitler’s manifesto, although the text of the video appears to have been copied from a Wikipedia page on World War I and partly references developments well predating Hitler’s reign.
“German industrial power and production increased considerably after 1871, driven by the creation of a unified Reich,” we can read on the Wikipedia page.
(Reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut; additional reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Andy Sullivan; editing by Ross Colvin and Daniel Wallis)
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