Former President Donald Trump's account shared a video on social media Monday that referred to a "unified Reich" among possible developments if he were to win re-election in November, drawing criticism from President Joe Biden and his campaign.
Trump's account posted a 30-second video to his Truth Social platform Monday afternoon that asked, "what happens after Donald Trump wins?" and "what's next for America?" The video was also posted to his Instagram account.
The background is made up of hypothetical newspaper front pages with headlines including "BORDER IS CLOSED — 15 MILLION ILLEGAL ALIENS DEPORTED" and "ECONOMY BOOMS." Twice in the clip, slightly blurred text appears beneath the headlines that reads: "Industrial strength significantly increased ... driven by the creation of a unified Reich."
The post of the video was deleted from Truth Social on Tuesday morning. It was also removed from Trump's Instagram account.
"Reich," meaning realm, kingdom or empire, is often considered to be a reference to Hitler's Third Reich regime that emerged in 1930s Nazi Germany — and its inclusion in the video was condemned by Biden.
"Is this on his official account? Wow!" Biden said Tuesday in a video of his own. "A 'unified Reich?' That's Hitler's language, that's not America's. He cares about holding on to power. I care about you."
Biden made similar remarks Tuesday at a campaign event in Boston.
James Singer, spokesman for Biden’s re-election campaign, said in a statement that Trump’s post “is part of a pattern of his praise for dictators and echoing antisemitic tropes. He’s a threat to our democracy and Americans must reject him and stand up for our democracy this November.”
Trump’s campaign dismissed the allegation and said the former president — who is on trial in New York — was not aware the word appeared in the video.
“This was not a campaign video, it was created by a random account online and reposted by a staffer who clearly did not see the word, while the President was in court," Karoline Leavitt, Trump campaign spokeswoman, said in a statement.
"The real extremist is Joe Biden who has turned his back on Israel and the Jewish people by bowing down to radical anti-semites and terrorist sympathizers in his party like Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez," she added.
While Hitler did discuss the creation of an enlarged German empire in his autobiographical manifesto "Mein Kampf," the text from the video shared on Truth Social appears to be taken from the Wikipedia page for World War I.
The site reads: “German industrial strength and production had significantly increased after 1871, driven by the creation of a unified Reich.”
The unification of Germany in 1871 brought together an assortment of German-speaking kingdoms and duchies that were left independent following the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806.
Another sentence in the video reads: "First World War (often abbreviated as WW1 or WWI) Causes of World War I."
Trump has used 20th-century German historical comparisons to attack his opponents: earlier this month he compared the Biden administration to the "Gestapo, " the secret police force of Nazi Germany.
Late last year Trump said immigrants were "poisoning the blood" of America, echoing parts of "Mein Kampf," but he said he was unaware Hitler had used similar language and denied the comments were racist.
MoonBatsRule on May 21st, 2024 at 12:45 UTC »
"I'm not a Nazi, the video was posted by one of the Nazis I have on staff. So I'm good". -- Donald Trump
PunfullyObvious on May 21st, 2024 at 12:42 UTC »
Their immediate explanation was that an "unnamed staffer" posted the video ....... well, that "unnamed staffer" needs to be fired.
and, spoiler alert, that "unnamed staffer" is Donald J Trump.
The man is both an idiot and a fascist ... for all the success this idiot, who has A LOT of extremely negative baggage, can have garnering populist support ... may the gods help us when a competent fascist comes along to replace him. We need to shut this the heck down by voting Democratic Party up and down the ticket this November.
OsellusK on May 21st, 2024 at 12:29 UTC »
The fact that so many people are willing to follow this absolute piece of trash like he’s a king while claiming to be “thinking for themselves” is the biggest and worst joke ever told in the U.S.
This shrieking brat deserves no kindness and no mercy for what he’s done and continues to do. The entire planet should be united against him based on historical precedent alone.
The commander in chief of the most well funded military in the world isn’t going to stop at our borders if he takes office with homicidal ideas like this.