Trump posts "unifed Reich" video on Truth Social, campaign puts blame on "staffer"

The former president ignored a reporter's question about why he posted the apparent allusion to Nazi Germany

Published May 21, 2024 10:08AM (EDT)

This illustration photo created May 20, 2024 in Los Angeles shows a frame from a video posted on Donald Trump's Truth Social account displayed on a smartphone in front of a photo of the former US president. (CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images)
This illustration photo created May 20, 2024 in Los Angeles shows a frame from a video posted on Donald Trump's Truth Social account displayed on a smartphone in front of a photo of the former US president. (CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images)

Former president Donald Trump posted a video on his social media network, Truth Social, that includes hypothetical headlines should he win in November — including a reference to a “unified Reich.”

In a statement to the Associated Press, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt claimed the video, including its apparent signalling to neo-Nazis, was the result of a "staffer" posting it after seeing it shared by "a random account online." But it was posted while Trump, who is on trial in Manhattan, was on a lunch break from court.

In the 30-second video, headlines appear such as “Trump wins!!” and “Economy booms!”  Headlines referencing World War I also show up — specifically, a text copied from a Wikipedia entry on the war: “German industrial strength and production had significantly increased after 1871, driven by the creation of a unified Reich.”

On Tuesday outside court, Trump ignored a reporter's question about why the video was posted.

Although the word “Reich” is typically used about Nazi Germany’s Third Reich, in the video, it appears to be referencing “the formation of the modern pan-German nation, unifying smaller states in single Reich, or empire, in 1871,” AP reported

Some of the other headlines read: “Border Is Closed” and ”15 Million Illegal Aliens Deported."

The former president, who dined with white supremacist influencer Nick Fuentes in 2022, has previously echoed Adolf Hitler’s rhetoric, saying immigrants entering the U.S. are “poisoning the blood of our country.”


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