By Nathan Layne
(Reuters) – Donald Trump deleted a video posted to his Truth Social account that referred to a “united Empire” after the president Joe Biden‘s campaign and others criticized 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 post had been removed from the site.
The video portrayed a positive vision for the country if Republican presidential candidate Biden were to defeat in November, with hypothetical headlines about a booming economy and a crackdown on immigration at the southern border.
At two points in the video, the text under a larger headline reads: “INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED… DRIVEN BY THE CREATION OF A UNITED REICH.” The text is slightly blurred, making it difficult to distinguish at first glance.
Trump made a series of incendiary comments during his campaign, calling political enemies “vermin” and saying immigrants who entered the country illegally were “poisoning the blood of our country.” These were heavily criticized by Democrats and some historians who said they echoed Nazi rhetoric.
Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s campaign spokesperson, said in a statement Monday that the video was taken by someone outside the campaign and shared by an aide who did not notice the use of the word “Reich” before posting it.
She said Trump, who is being prosecuted in New York over a hush-money payment to a porn star, was in the courtroom at the time. He did not answer a question about the video a reporter shouted as he entered the courtroom Tuesday.
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
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 doesn’t play games; he is telling America exactly what he plans to do when he regains power: rule as a dictator over a ‘united Empire,’” said Biden campaign spokesman James Singer.
Singer also accused Trump of “parroting” “Mein Kampf,” Hitler’s manifesto, although the text in the video appears to have been copied from a Wikipedia page on World War I and refers in part to developments that long preceded Hitler’s rule.
“German industrial strength and production had increased significantly after 1871, driven by the creation of a unified Empire,” the Wikipedia page reads.
(Reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Conn.; additional reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Andy Sullivan; Editing by Ross Colvin and Daniel Wallis)
