Trump Campaign Compares Second Term To A Unified Reich In Social Media Gaffe

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Since Donald Trump emerged as a dark horse candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, his opponents have chastised him for echoing nationalistic rhetoric reminiscent of Adolf Hitler. That empty character assassination largely fulfilled Godwin's Law and thus made his political opponents criticisms come off as impotent. Nevertheless, the tactic was constant throughout his presidency, especially fueling the Russiagate conspiracy that sought to use his diplomatic approach with Vladimir Putin as a symbol of neo-nazism. Although those attacks against the populist sentiment Trump has espoused have been fairly toothless beyond reinforcing the deluded perspective of his political opposition, he has had to repeatedly deny them time and time again. While he has constantly rejected the association between America First and Nazism, Trump's social media team issued an ad that has rekindled the fire's of that liberal fever dream.

On Monday, the Trump campaign released a new ad on his account on his social media platform Truth Social. The ad describes the auspices of a new Trump administration, foreshadowing America's return to greatness. The ad relishes the return of booming economy, tax cuts, and a renewed focus on strengthening America domestically ultimately resurrecting the American Dream. The images and videos in the ad were displayed atop a graphically designed background emulating hypothetical newspaper headlines reacting to his re-election. Toward the end of the ad, one such headline foretells of how America's “Industrial strength significantly increased … driven by the creation of a unified reich.”

The inclusion of the word "reich" and its inextricable ties to the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler left Biden administration officials foaming at the month before a bone thrown their way that they so desperately needed. “Donald 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 spokesperson James Singer said.

However, the Trump public relations team vehemently rejected the premise, chalking up the gaffe to an oversight by the former president's social media team. “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,” said Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt.

According to the Associated Press, the headline referring to a unified reich was taken from a Wikipedia entry on World War I that stated: “German industrial strength and production had significantly increased after 1871, driven by the creation of a unified Reich.” Despite the inseparable context with Nazism, there was a reason Hitler referred to his regime as the Third Reich. The first was the Holy Roman Empire and the second was the unified German Empire founded afters its dissolution in 1871. Nevertheless, the political fodder the inclusion of that term has given Democrats will wholly ignore that context, much in line with their Cultural Marxist tactic of revising history.

In recent months, the Israel - Hamas war has become a pillar of Trump's re-election campaign. Trump has touted himself as the greatest ally to Israel of any president in American history while constantly re-affirming his commitment to supporting it at any cost, even going as far to suggest providing it with unlimited aid. In the early days of the war, Trump had been critical of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for what he described as poor optics in losing the public relations battle over the conflict. However, in the wake of criticisms of the Biden administration for mishandling the conflict being tantamount to antisemitism and support of terrorist groups like Hamas, the Trump campaign has honed in on those failures to secure the Zionist vote in the forthcoming election.

While this social media faux pas is a nothingburger like other controversies the MSM has created into public spectacle it is a microcosm of a larger, more substantial issue. Trump supporters often found themselves dumbfounded at the selection of many administration officials. Many of Trump's appointments were the embodiment of the establishment he vowed to defy, most notably National Security Adviser John Bolton, among others. The weakness of Trump to surround himself with people who authentically represent the platform he has campaigned under is still cause for concern given speculation about former Trump cabinet members such as Mike Pompeo being part of any future administration.

Regardless of the ad re-posted by the Trump social media team not having any ties to the official campaign, the controversy will surely renew the hysteria and fear-mongering his opponents have constantly used to induce a type of mass formation psychosis in their followers. Like many of Trump's curious administration appointments, this oversight is another episode of his team providing their opposition with political capital they have desperately needed in another instance of the greatest threat to his re-election being Trump himself.