Trump’s ‘unified reich’ post is ‘sickening,’ White House says

WASHINGTON — The White House denounced Republican Donald Trump after a video was posted to his social media account that referenced a “unified reich” as a potential news headline if he won a second term, calling it “dangerous and offensive.”

“It is abhorrent, sickening, and disgraceful for anyone to promote content associated with Germany’s Nazi government under Adolf Hitler,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement Tuesday.

Trump’s post drew widespread backlash after it appeared Monday on his Truth Social account, though it was left up for almost 24 hours before being taken down on Tuesday.

While former President Trump's campaign says the video posted to Trump's social media account referencing a "unified reich" was an accident by a junior staffer, the White House and Biden campaign are saying it was intentional and call the video "abhorrent," @weijia reports. pic.twitter.com/Sn7iE3xYs4

— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 21, 2024

The term “reich” is commonly linked to the Third Reich established by Nazi German leaders ahead of World War II. The 30-second video sought to portray a positive future for the U.S. under a second Trump presidency. The phrase “industrial strength significantly increased … driven by the creation of a unified reich” appeared next to other headlines describing mass deportations, a roaring economy and the end of World War I.

The White House statement did not cite Trump by name; many federal employees are legally barred from electioneering in their official capacity. President Joe Biden plans to personally address the post later Tuesday at a political fundraiser, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

“Donald Trump posting a ‘unified Reich’ video is part of a pattern of his praise for dictators and echoing antisemitic tropes. He’s a threat to our democracy and Americans must reject him and stand up for our democracy this November,” Biden campaign spokesman James Singer said in a statement Tuesday.

The Trump campaign sought to distance itself from the video, which appeared on his Truth Social page on a day when he was at his Manhattan hush-money trial.

“This was not a campaign video, it was created by a random account online and reposted by a junior staffer who clearly did not see the word, while the President was in court,” Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

Trump has said only longtime aide Dan Scavino and he have access to his social media pages, the Biden campaign said.

The Anti-Defamation League said in a statement that the Trump campaign “did the right thing by removing the video,” adding that the German Third Reich “is not a government to be celebrated or glorified in any context.”

Biden and his team have repeatedly bashed Trump for using rhetoric targeting racial, ethnic and religious minorities. He has accused immigrants of “poisoning the blood of our country” and described his opponents as “vermin,” language that echoed Hitler’s.

Trump has also drawn fire for dining in 2022 with a Holocaust denier at his Palm Beach estate and for equivocating his response to the 2017 White nationalist march on Charlottesville, Virginia. He has accused Biden of running a “Gestapo administration,” a reference to the Nazi secret police, and also said Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats hate their religion.