Former President Donald J. Trump released a video Monday afternoon featuring images of hypothetical newspaper articles celebrating his victory in 2024 and referring to “the creation of a unified Reich” under the title “What is the next step for America?
The 30-second video, which Mr. Trump posted on his social media site, Truth Social, features several articles written like newspapers from the early 1900s — and apparently recycling text from World War I reports, including references to “German industrial power”. and “peace through strength”. A story in the video claims Mr Trump would deport 15 million migrants during a second term, while on-screen text lists the days of the start and end of the First World War.
Another title of the video suggests that Mr. Trump, in a second term, would reject “globalists”, using a term that has been widely adopted by the far right and which academics say can be used as a a signal of anti-Semitism.
The Trump campaign said in a statement that the video was posted by a staffer while Mr. Trump was attending his criminal trial in Manhattan. The video was still visible on his account late Monday evening, and his campaign did not respond to a question about why it had not been removed.
“This was not a campaign video, it was created by a random online account and reposted by a staffer who clearly did not see the word, while the president was in court,” Karoline said Leavitt, campaign spokesperson, in a statement. “The real extremist is Joe Biden. »
Mr. Trump has repeatedly denounced Jews who vote for Democrats, accusing them of hating their religion and Israel. In a video this month, he said that “if Jews want to vote for Joe Biden, they need to have their heads examined.”
Mr. Trump, whose advisers have drawn up plans for a second term that would be more radical than his first, has also been criticized during this campaign for echoing the language of past authoritarian leaders, dehumanizing his political opponents by calling them of “vermin” and promising that he would not be a dictator “except on the first day”.
In November 2022, Mr. Trump had dinner with Nick Fuentes, an avowed anti-Semite who is one of the country’s most prominent white supremacists. He also tried to downplay the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, calling the episode a “big hoax.” A woman was killed and nearly 40 people were injured when an avowed neo-Nazi drove his car into a crowd.
The term “Reich” is often associated with the Nazi government of Germany under Adolf Hitler, which established a “Third Reich” that succeeded its first two counterparts, the medieval Holy Roman Empire and the German Empire of 1871- 1918, who lost World War I to the Allied Powers.
The phrase referring to “the creation of a unified Reich” is used three times in the video. It reads in its entirety: “German industrial power increased considerably after 1871, as a result of the creation of a unified Reich.” At the start of the video, as a presenter asks, “What’s next for America?” “, the text is partly visible, including the words “the creation of a unified Reich”.
The German Empire that fought in World War I was founded when many German-speaking states and regions were unified – some by force – into a single, powerful nation in 1871. This empire was dismantled by the end of the World War I and Hitler stoked resentment against the loss of former German territories and against the Jewish people, as he rose to power in the run-up to World War II.
President Biden’s campaign accused Mr. Trump of echoing Nazi Germany by releasing the ad, saying in a statement on social media that the video “foreshadowed a second Trump term.”
News Source : www.nytimes.com
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