After backlash, Trump pulls social media post with reference to 'unified Reich'

[May 22, 2024]  By Nathan Layne

(Reuters) -Donald Trump deleted a video posted to his Truth Social account that included reference 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, which was posted on Monday afternoon, was no longer available on the website by early morning on Tuesday. A person familiar with the matter confirmed the post had been removed from the site.

The video portrayed a positive vision for the country should the Republican presidential candidate defeat Biden, a Democrat, in November's election, featuring hypothetical newspaper headlines about a booming economy and a crackdown on immigration at the southern border.

At two points in the video, text below a larger headline reads: "INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED... DRIVEN BY THE CREATION OF A UNIFIED REICH." The text is somewhat blurred, making it difficult to make out at first glance.

Trump has made a series of inflammatory remarks on the campaign trail, calling political enemies "vermin" and saying immigrants who entered the nation illegally were "poisoning the blood of our country." Those drew heavy criticism from Democrats and some historians who said they echoed Nazi rhetoric.

Speaking at two fundraisers in Boston on Tuesday, Biden criticized the use of a word often associated with Nazi Germany's Third Reich under Adolf Hitler.

"That's not the language of an American president. That's not the language of any American. It's the language of Hitler's Germany," Biden said.

He said Trump finally took down the video today. "He's got some lame excuse that a staffer did it. But we already know Trump personally controls his social media account because he's bragged so much about his control," he said.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom at Manhattan Criminal Court with attorney Todd Blanche on May 21, 2024 in New York City. Michael M. Santiago/Pool via REUTERS

Karoline Leavitt, a Trump campaign spokesperson, said in a statement on 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 posting.

She said Trump, who is facing a criminal trial in New York over a hush money payment to a porn star, was in court at the time. He did not answer a question about the video shouted by a reporter as he headed into court on Tuesday.

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

The text in the video appears to have been copied from a Wikipedia page about World War One and refers in part to developments long preceding Hitler's rule.

"German industrial strength and production had significantly increased after 1871, driven by the creation of a unified Reich," the Wikipedia page reads.

(Reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut; Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Jarrett Renshaw and Andy Sullivan; Editing by Ross Colvin, Daniel Wallis, Jonathan Oatis and Christopher Cushing)

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