The Reich Stuff

Yesterday, a video was posted on Trump’s social media campaign page that raves about America under Trump, leading to a “unified Reich.”

Yes, you read that right.

The video seemingly was based on an existing online template that had references to Germany and the two World Wars.  It’s filled with overwhelming praise for all the great things that will happen in America if Trump wins the election – massive growth in jobs, a booming economy, extensive deportations and more.  And at one point, there a graphic that reads, “Industrial strength significantly increased driven by the creation of a unified Reich.”

The video was fairly quickly taken down, and a statement was put out by the campaign.  “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.”

To be fair, it’s hard to imagine that the video posting was authorized by the campaign.  To be equally fair, that hardly excuses it.  After all, the sentiment is hardly totally out of sync with the standards Trump has set – saying there were many fine people among the neo-Nazis protesting in Charlottesville, embracing the support of neo-Nazi and white Supremacist groups, telling the white supremacist Proud Boys to “Stand back and stand by,” saying he wants to be a dictator, saying he wants to throw out parts of the U.S. Constitution, saying he wants to deport huge groups of people, saying he wants to create internment camps, and much more.

Further, there is no word from the campaign that the staffer who posted the video was fired or even reprimanded in any way.  In addition, nothing in the campaign statement says that they found the sentiment expressed in the video to be reprehensible and repugnant to the beliefs held by the Trump campaign.  In fact, all they say is that it was posted by a staffer.  Not a single word of criticism of the sentiment, just that it wasn’t done by the campaign.

Actually, their response was even worse than that. They tried to obfuscate the issue and, in essence, make it all about President Biden.

"The real extremist,” the fascist Trump campaign noted, “is Joe Biden,” suggesting that he has turned his back on Israel and the Jewish people, by following such people as Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

This is a sickening response on so many levels, but starting with them trying to use their supposed love of the Jewish people while not even apologizing for posting a video that embraces a “unified Reich.”

So, the Trump campaign statement cannot be taken as an apology or regret about the sentiment – given that there was no apology, nor any regret about the sentiment.  And instead tries to evade all responsibility by pretending to embrace themselves to Jews without criticizing their own candidate’s page calling for a new Reich -- all the while doing their best to obfuscate the issue by pointing at others.

Pro Tip:  if you want to endear yourselves to Jews, not criticizing praise for a “unified Reich” meant to recall the previous Reich that systematically murdered 6 million Jews is not the way to go.  Jews actually remember the Holocaust, even if MAGOPs at best want to ignore that it existed.

Not surprisingly, President Biden and his campaign were rightly having none of it.

“Is this on his official account? Wow!" Biden responded in a video.  "A 'unified Reich?' That's Hitler's language, that's not America's. He cares about holding on to power. I care about you."

And a spokesperson for the Biden campaign said, that Trump’s post “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.”

More to the point, in the end, is that even if the Trump campaign had issued a heart-wrenching apology and (at least on the surface) meant it, the problem they have is that this is a fascist campaign – and party – that has created a base that welcomes a neo-Nazi and white supremacist philosophy and feels emboldened to create videos like this on behalf of Trump.

Even if videos with sentiments like this don’t appear on the Trump campaign page again, thanks to more vigilant eyes not wanting such things public, it’s not like they won’t appear in today’s MAGOP conversation.  Because they are part of its foundation.