Our recent book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics. Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good. A recent post discussed anti-semitic tropes in GOP rhetoric.
Rebecca Falconer at Axios:Rebecca Falconer at Axios:
A video reposted to former President Trump's Truth Social account on Monday discussing what would happen if he won the 2024 election referred to "a unified Reich."
Why it matters: Although Trump's campaign emphasized that this wasn't a campaign video and a staffer inadvertently reposted it without seeing the words, President Biden's campaign seized on it in a post to X, saying: "Trump posts a new ad foreshadowing a second Trump term that says he will create a 'UNIFIED REICH,' echoing Nazi Germany."
Context: The word "Reich" typically refers to German empires, though it's now largely associated with Adolf Hitler's Third Reich during Nazi Germany.
Driving the news: In the 30-second video that was posted on Trump's Truth Social account during his New York hush money trial's lunch break, a narrator discusses "what's next for America" if Trump wins as mock headlines and other text are displayed on the screen, including "the creation of a unified Reich."
AP first reported that the text in one of the headlines seemed to be taken verbatim from a Wikipedia entry on World War I that states "German industrial strength and production had significantly increased after 1871, driven by the creation of a unified Reich."
Other headlines in the video that was still posted on Trump's Truth Social account early Tuesday included "IT'S A LANDSLIDE! TRUMP WINS!!" At times the headlines echo the narrator's comments, including when the voice says "the economy booms."
Repeating the narrator's comments "the border is closed," text is displayed below the headline stating "15 MILLION ILLEGAL ALIENS DEPORTED" — in an apparent reference to Trump's plan for the mass deportation of undocumented migrants if he's elected.
Donald Trump now openly advocating for “the creation of a unified Reich” in mock newspaper featured in campaign ad. pic.twitter.com/IsVg56qVvV
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) May 21, 2024
