Trump social media account posts video promising ‘unified Reich’ if he is reelected
The post containing the phrase, associated with the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler, was taken down after it was met with condemnation.
Former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social account shared a video on May 20 that included the statement that if Trump is reelected for a second term, he will preside over the “creation of a unified Reich.”
The video flashes images of hypothetical newspaper headlines following a Trump victory in the November presidential election, and the reference to a “unified Reich” is seen in one of them.
“Reich” is a German word that is variously translated as “empire,” “domain” or “realm,” among other terms. It has been used at a various points in German history to refer to German territory, but it is now most closely associated with the Third Reich proclaimed under Adolf Hitler and its desire to create a new German empire that was populated by superior so-called Aryans” and violently excluded people of races and social, political and religious minorities that were deemed inferior, including Jews, Roma, homosexuals and Communists. Hitler’s Third Reich systematically killed six million Jews, as well as millions of non-Jews.
The video was posted to Trump’s Truth Social account during a break in his criminal trial in New York, where he faces dozens of counts of falsifying business records in connection with alleged hush money payments he made to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claimed to have had affairs with Trump before the 2016 election.
Trump’s campaign did not apologize for posting the video and instead blamed an unnamed staffer for its appearance on his social media account.
“This was not a campaign video, it was created by a random account online and reposted by a staffer who clearly did not see the word, while the President was in court,” Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a press statement.
The video remained on Trump’s account for hours before it was deleted on the morning of May 21.
This is not the first time Trump has either used Nazi terminology or cozied up to people with white supremacist views.
In March, Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly said Trump praised Hitler during his time in the White House.
“He said, ‘Well, but Hitler did some good things,’” Kelly, a retired Marine general, told CNN. “I said, ‘Well, what?’ And he said, ‘Well, [Hitler] rebuilt the economy.’ But what did he do with that rebuilt economy? He turned it against his own people and against the world. And I said, ‘Sir, you can never say anything good about the guy. Nothing.’”
In 2022, Trump had dinner with Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and rapper Kanye West, who at the time was under fire for making antisemitic comments, promising to go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.”
In 2017, Trump said there were “very fine people” among the neo-Nazi protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, who chanted “Jews will not replace us” during a rally to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Trump has also used white supremacist language against immigrants, saying in December that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
