NEW YORK (AP) — A video posted Monday to Donald Trump’s social media account included references to a “unified Reich” among hypothetical headlines if he wins the election in November.
The title appears among messages flashing on the screen such as “Trump wins!! and “The economy is booming!” » Other titles seem to refer to the First World War.
The word “Reich” is often widely associated with the Third Reich of Nazi Germany, although the references in the video shared by Trump appear to be a reference to the formation of the modern Pan-German nation, unifying the small states into a single Reich, or worse. in 1871.
The 30-second video appeared on Trump’s account at a time when the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, while seeking to portray President Joe Biden as lenient towards anti-Semitism, has himself been repeatedly criticized for using language and rhetoric associated with Nazi Germany.
It was posted and shared on the former president’s Truth Social account while he was on his lunch break after his silent trial in Manhattan.
“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 press secretary, in a statement.
Earlier this month, Trump said at a fundraiser that Biden was running a “Gestapo administration,” referring to the Nazi secret police.
Trump has previously used rhetoric echoing that of Adolf Hitler when he said immigrants entering the United States illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country” and called his opponents “vermin.”
The former president also received widespread backlash for having dinner with a white nationalist Holocaust denier in 2022 and for downplaying the 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where white nationalists chanted “Jews will not replace us not !
At least one of the titles that appear in the video appears to be text copied verbatim from a Wikipedia entry on World War I: “German industrial strength and production increased significantly after 1871, driven by creative of a unified Reich. »
In one image, the headlines “Border is closed” and “15 million illegal aliens deported” appear above smaller text with the start and end dates of World War I.
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