By Colin McCullough | CNN
Former President Donald Trump posted a video on Monday showing images of a fake newspaper article that references a “unified Reich” if he’s reelected in 2024.
The video details “what happens after Donald Trump wins” with a narrator reading hypothetical headlines like “Economy Booms!” and “Border is closed,” styled as World War I-era newspaper clippings. Under one headline that reads “What’s next for America?” is a reference to the “creation of a unified Reich.”
Another headline in the video states “15 Million Illegal Aliens Deported” next to the start and end days of World War I.
The term “reich” is often associated Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler, who designated Germany a “Third Reich” from 1933 to 1945.
The video was removed from Trump’s Truth Social account Tuesday morning.
Karoline Leavitt, a Trump campaign spokesperson, said in a statement that the video was not created by the campaign and was “reposted by a staffer who clearly did not see the word, while the President was in court.”
Biden’s allies, meanwhile, swiftly and emphatically condemned Trump over the video, with both his campaign and the White House denouncing what it said was flagrant antisemitism.
“It is abhorrent, sickening, and disgraceful for anyone to promote content associated with Germany’s Nazi government under Adolf Hitler,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement.
Trump is “not playing games; he is telling America exactly what he intends to do if he regains power: rule as a dictator over a ‘unified reich,” Biden campaign spokesperson James Singer said.
Trump has previously played into antisemitic tropes, drawing broad condemnation for lashing out at Jewish Americans he says don’t support him and Israel enough. His rhetoric – including claiming undocumented migrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” and referring to his political opponents as “vermin” – have drawn comparison to the language used by Hitler.
At a rally in December, Trump pushed back on criticism that his rhetoric has echoed Hitler, telling a crowd in Iowa that he’s never read “Mein Kampf.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
