Biden Calls Trump ‘Unhinged’ for ‘Unified Reich’ Online Post

Jordan Fabian and Jennifer Jacobs
·3 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden denounced Donald Trump after a video was posted to the Republican’s social media account that referenced a “unified reich” as a potential news headline if he won a second term.

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“That’s not the language of an American president. That’s not the language of any American. It’s the language of Hitler’s Germany,” Biden said of the video during a Tuesday campaign fundraiser in Boston.

The president scoffed at the Trump campaign’s statement blaming a junior staff member for sharing the post, calling it a “lame excuse.”

“We already know Trump personally controls his social media account because he brags so much about his control,” Biden said.

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. The White House earlier Tuesday issued a statement calling it a “sickening” example of promoting “content associated with Germany’s Nazi government under Adolf Hitler.”

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 US 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.

Biden addressed the video at both of his Boston fundraisers on Tuesday, saying at one event that Trump was “clearly unhinged,” pointing to the post as well as a Time magazine interview in which his predecessor said he would use the US military to deport migrants, allow states to prosecute people who violate abortion bans and demurred on the prospect of political violence around the November election.

Biden told donors at his first event that he decided to run for president after Trump equivocated in response to the 2017 White nationalist march on Charlottesville, Virginia, during which participants chanted “Jews will not replace us.”

The president said he must compete and win to ensure Trump loses, adding, “I hope I don’t screw it up for you.”

‘Random Account’

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-denying White nationalist at his Palm Beach estate and for his response to the Charlottesville march. 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.

--With assistance from Stephanie Lai and Simone Foxman.

(Updates with new Biden comments starting in second paragraph)

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