MSNBC columnist Charlie Sykes has condemned Donald Trump for using language reminiscent of Adolf Hitler. Mr. Sykes said the former President’s “racism” is “raw,” and it is ultimately driving the attacks on Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, whom Trump accuses of eating people’s pets. He stated that Mr. Trump shifts his attacks from one minority to another and encourages the Republican party to chant slogans about deportation. “This is not a gaff or a one-off. This is what he is running on,” Sykes said.
The columnist is not the first to accuse former President Trump of using “Hitlerian” language and rhetoric. When he told a rally of supporters that immigrants were “poisoning the blood of the nation,” the backlash was fierce, partly because the Nazi leader used similar language when stating that Jews had “poisoned the blood” of Germany and diluted its racial purity.
Speaking to conservative host Hugh Hewitt last December, Trump said he didn’t know Hitler had used those words in his speeches. “I have no idea what Hitler said other than what I’ve seen on the news,” he stated. But this was not enough for his critics, some of whom accused him of repeatedly denying knowledge of a topic when he felt cornered.
The former President came under fire again recently when CNN claimed he had published a video referencing a “unified Reich.” The video presents a picture of what America will look like under a second Trump term and contains phrases such as “economy booms” superimposed on a newspaper-like background. In one scene, the background paper contains the words “industrial strength significantly increased, driven by the creation of a unified Reich.”
Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt issued a statement on the video, saying the former President was unaware of what was written in the background, and that staff created the video. President Biden condemned it as antisemitism and said Mr. Trump is a “guy that uses Hitler’s language, not America’s.”
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates called it “abhorrent, sickening, and disgraceful.” Biden campaign spokesperson James Singer added, “Trump is not playing games; he is telling America exactly what he intends to do.”
