Trump’s campaign removes video that alludes to the Nazi era
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Donald Trump’s campaign has deleted a video shared on social media by the former president that mentioned the creation of a “unified Empire” if the Republican candidate wins a second term. at the White House.
The campaign was forced to remove the video from his Truth Social account on Tuesday, saying it was accidentally reposted by a staffer who did not realize there was a Nazi connection.
Trump’s sharing of the video raised concerns about his authoritarian plans and far-right rhetoric if he takes back the White House from President Joe Biden in the November election.
trumpet vowed to become a dictator on “day one” in his bid to reverse many of Biden’s policies and said he would seek revenge on his political opponents, vowing to use the camps detention and the US military to crack down on undocumented immigrants “poisoning the blood” of the country.
Democrats see the video as further evidence of what they see as Trump’s threat to US democracy and increasingly extreme rhetoric.
Kamala Harris, the vice president, criticized Trump. “In these times, extremists are trying to divide our country and we see them promoting xenophobia and hatred,” she said. “This kind of rhetoric is not surprising coming from a former president and it is appalling.”
Biden’s campaign said the video was “part of a pattern [Trump’s ] praising dictators and repeating anti-Semitic tropes.”
It added: “He is a threat to our democracy and Americans must reject him and stand up for our democracy this November.”
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Trump has a slight edge over Biden in national polls and in most key battleground states ahead of the November election, but the president’s reelection campaign is hoping they can win some advantage by portraying Trump as a far-right extremist. This could make Trump especially unappealing to moderate voters and independents who dislike both candidates but are wondering who to vote for.
Trump’s campaign said the video was “not a campaign video” and 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”.
The video includes a series of articles imagining what would happen to America if he won the election — and under one headline is a phrase in smaller letters praising “the establishment of a unified Empire”.