The Democratic camp vigorously attacked Donald Trump on Monday, after the publication of a video on one of his social network accounts mentioning a “unified Reich” among fictitious newspaper headlines celebrating the victory of the Republican presidential candidate .
“What will happen after Donald Trump wins? What to expect for America,” asks the off-camera voice of this 30-second video, published by Donald Trump’s account on his Truth Social platform, displaying imaginary press headlines, praising the prosperity of the States -United.
While newspapers headline “The economy is booming!” » or even “The border is closed”, a press headline reports “the creation of a unified Reich”.
The word “Reich” is generally used to refer to Nazi Germany.
Donald Trump’s campaign team pleaded good faith, citing an external and fortuitous error.
“This was not a campaign video, it was created by one of many online accounts and reposted by an employee who clearly did not see the word (Reich), even though the president was in court,” a spokesperson for the Republican’s campaign team, Karoline Leavitt, told Agence France-Presse.
No reference to Nazism is also visible in the video. In these images, which combine blurred extracts of text in the background with the appearance of newspaper articles, allusions to the First World War are made.
Mr. Trump has a “long history” of anti-Semitic behavior, Democratic President Joe Biden’s campaign team wrote in a scathing statement in response to the video.
“Donald Trump doesn’t play games. He is telling America exactly what he plans to do if he returns to power: rule as a dictator a ‘unified Reich,'” Democratic campaign spokesman James Singer wrote in a statement, accusing him of “parodying “Mein Kampf”, the political manifesto of the Nazi dictator and having “disturbed behavior”.”
Mr. Trump regularly explains that his rival Joe Biden has failed to stem anti-Semitism in the United States in the context of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
But the former Republican leader is sometimes criticized for his use of rhetoric reminiscent of Nazism, particularly when he refers to immigrants as “vermin” who “poison the blood” of the United States.
In 2017, while in office at the White House, Mr. Trump called people involved in clashes between anti-racists and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia (east), “very good people,” on both camps.