Donald Trump removed a video posted to his Truth Social account that referred to a “unified Reich,” after President Joe Biden’s campaign and others 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 early Tuesday morning. A person familiar with the matter confirmed that the video had been removed from the site.
The video presented a positive view of the country if the Republican presidential nominee beat Mr. Biden in November, with hypothetical newspaper headlines about a booming economy and an immigration crackdown at the southern border.
At two points in the video, the text below a larger title reads: “INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH INCREASED SIGNIFICANTLY… THROUGH THE CREATION OF A UNIFIED REICH.” The text is somewhat blurry, making it difficult to make out at first glance.
Mr. Trump made a series of incendiary remarks during his campaign, calling his political enemies “vermin” and saying immigrants who entered the country illegally were “poisoning the blood of our country.” The remarks drew sharp criticism from Democrats and some historians, who said they echoed Nazi rhetoric.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Mr. Trump’s 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 putting it online.
She added that Mr. Trump, who is facing a criminal trial in New York for paying bribes to a porn star, was in court at the time. He did not respond to a question about the video posed by a reporter as he walked into court Tuesday.
Mr. Trump’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr 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 ‘Reich unified,'” said James Singer, a spokesperson for Joe Biden’s campaign.
Mr. Singer also accused Mr. Trump of repeating “Mein Kampf,” Hitler’s manifesto, although the text of the video appears to have been copied from a Wikipedia page on the First World War and is refers in part to events that long preceded Hitler’s reign.
“German industrial power and production had increased considerably after 1871, driven by the creation of a unified Reich,” we can read on the Wikipedia page.
