NEW YORK (AP) — A video posted Monday to Donald Trump’s account on his social media network included references to a “United Empire” among hypothetical news headlines if he wins the November election.
The headline appears between messages that flash across the screen, such as “Trump wins!!” and “The economy is booming!” Other headlines appear to be references to the First World War.
The word “Reich” is often largely associated with Nazi Germany’s Third Reich, although the references in the video Trump shared appear to be a reference to the formation of the modern pan-German nation, which unites smaller states into a single Reich, or empire. in 1871.
The 30-second video appeared on Trump’s account at a time when the presumptive Republican nominee for president was trying to portray President Joe Biden which is soft on anti-Semitism, has itself been repeatedly criticized for using language and rhetoric associated with Nazi Germany.
It was posted and shared on the former president’s Truth Social account while he was having lunch after his hush money trial in Manhattan.
“This was not a campaign video, it was taken by a random account online and reposted by an employee who clearly did not see the word while the president was in the courtroom,” Karoline Leavitt, the campaign’s press secretary, said in a statement.
Earlier this month, Trump said at a fundraiser that Biden is running a “Gestapo administration,” referring to the secret Nazi police.
Trump previously used rhetoric echoing Adolf Hitler when he said immigrants entering the US illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country” and called his opponents “vermin.”
The former president has also been widely criticized for dining with a Holocaust-denying white nationalist in 2022 and for downplaying the 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where white nationalists chanted, “Jews will not replace us!”
At least one of the headlines in the video appears to be text taken verbatim from a Wikipedia article about World War I: “German industrial strength and production had increased significantly after 1871, driven by the creation of a unified Empire.”
In one image, the headlines “Border is closed” and “15 million illegal aliens deported” appear above smaller text showing the start and end dates of World War I.
