Twelve hours after Donald Trump’s Truth Social account shared a video suggesting that the ex-president will rule over “a unified reich,” a spokesperson for the former guy insisted that the Hitler-coded spot “was not a campaign video,” that “it was created by a random account online and reposted by a staffer who clearly did not see the word,” and that “the president was in court” when all of this went down. But the Biden campaign—among others!—is not buying it.
Noting that Trump himself has said that only he and one of his top advisers have access to his account, Biden campaign spokesman James Singer said in a statement, “Donald Trump posting a ‘unified Reich’ video 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.” Singer also noted the many instances in which the former president has said or done things that would lead people to believe he’d be totally fine with a video positively referencing a “unified reich,” including but not limited to the time Trump:
- Reportedly said Hitler did “a lot of good things”
- Reportedly called soldiers who died in the war against Germany “suckers” and “losers”
- Claimed that a group of neo-Nazis had some “very fine people” among it
- Promised a “bloodbath“ if he doesn’t win in November
Singer also told Politico that Americans should “stop scrolling and pay attention,” warning them of Trump’s “extreme vision of chaos, division and violence.” In response, Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt claimed that Biden is “the real extremist,” and “has turned his back on Israel and the Jewish people by bowing down to radical antisemites and terrorist sympathizers in his party.” She did not mention that it is Trump, and not Biden, who:
- Tweeted Hillary Clinton’s face against a backdrop of $100 bills and a Star of David, along with the words “most corrupt candidate ever”
- Closed his 2016 campaign with an ad that included the images of three Jewish people—George Soros, Janet Yellen, and Lloyd Blankfein—with the warning that a secretive “global power structure” was to blame for economic policies that have “robbed our working class“ and “stripped our country of its wealth”
- Called Jews who didn’t vote for him dumb and/or disloyal
- Declared in a tweet that Jewish voters “don’t even know what they’re doing or saying anymore”
- Said Jews who vote for Democrats “hate Israel” and Judaism
- Suggested that Jews only care about money
- Hosted a White House Hanukkah party that featured an evangelical pastor who once said Jews were going to hell
- Told a room full of Jewish people that Jews who work in real estate are “brutal killers” and “not nice people at all”
- Suggested Jews control the media
- Said that Jews are “only in it for themselves,” following phone calls with Jewish lawmakers
- Reportedly wanted his military leaders to operate like “the German generals in World War II”
- Had dinner at Mar-a-Lago with a Holocaust denier
- Uses Hitlerian rhetoric, like calling his enemies “vermin” and claiming immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country”
- Kept a book of Hitler’s speeches next to his bed
Just something to consider!
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