Trump deletes video mentioning ‘unified reich’ from Truth Social account
Donald Trump appears to have deleted a video posted on his Truth Social account that contains language mentioning a “unified reich”. The video could once be found here, but the link is no longer active.
The Biden campaign has spent most of this morning slamming Trump for using the language in a video touting his plans if returned to the White House, which was first spotted by the Associated Press. In a statement following the deletion of the video, a Biden campaign spokesperson, James Singer, said its publication was “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.”
Key events
In a jailhouse interview with Semafor, Peter Navarro, a former top trade adviser to Donald Trump, predicted mass deportations of undocumented migrants and the firing of Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell if the ex-president wins the November election.
“Trump will … quickly seal the border and begin mass deportations. Biden has imported a wave of crime and terrorism along with an uneducated mass that drives down wages of Black, brown, and blue-collar Americans. Blacks and Hispanics, particularly males in the workforce, are flocking to Trump in droves,” Navarro said in the interview, which was conducted over the law library email system at the federal prison where he is incarcerated following his conviction for defying the January 6 committee. Semafor notes that Navarro apparently remains in Trump’s good graces, and has been visited behind bars by members of his inner circle, raising speculation he could be appointed to a post in a second Trump administration.
Powell, a Republican, has led the fight against inflation, which has bedeviled Joe Biden’s presidency and caused his approval ratings to drop. Though Trump first nominated Powell for the job leading the powerful central bank, and Biden renominated him, Navarro predicts he would be removed if Trump takes office again:
Powell was Mnuchin’s folly – Powell raised rates too fast under Trump and choked off growth. To keep his job, Powell then raised rates too slowly to contain inflation under Biden. My guess is that this punctilious non-economist will be gone in a hundred days one way or the other. Former Council of Economic Advisers Chair Kevin Hassett would be a logical replacement; former CEA Chair Tyler Goodspeed would be a bold choice.
If you are wondering what Navarro is doing in prison, here is your answer:
Lauren Gambino
As the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, entered a hearing room in the Senate Dirksen building – his first of four appearances on Capitol Hill this week – anti-war protesters rose and raised their hands, painted blood red.
“Secretary of genocide,” they called, as he took his seat. “War criminal.”
Protesters call Blinken the “Secretary of Genocide” and a “war criminal” as he enters his first of four Capitol Hill appearances this week. pic.twitter.com/AAlWwu693n
— Lauren Gambino (@laurenegambino) May 21, 2024
According to local health officials, more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed as a result of Israel’s war in Gaza. Israel says it is seeking to eradicate Hamas, which launched a cross-border attack that killed roughly 1,200 people on 7 October and took as many as 250 hostages.
Blinken is here ostensibly to make the case for Congress to approve Joe Biden’s $64bn state department and international affairs budget request. But he’ll certainly face pointed questions from senators on both sides of the aisle who are unhappy with the president’s Israel policy.
The Senate foreign relations committee, Blinken’s first stop of the week, features Republicans who are furious over the Biden administration’s decision to pause a bomb shipment to Israel as a warning to the nation not to launch a full-scale invasion of Rafah, and Democrats are also upset that the administration hasn’t done more to protect Palestinian civilians.
The hearings come at an extremely delicate moment for the region: a day after the international criminal court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, applied for arrest warrants for two top Israeli officials – the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and defense minister, Yoav Gallant – as well as the leaders of Hamas. Meanwhile, Iran is reeling from the death of the country’s president and foreign minister in a helicopter crash near its border with Azerbaijan.
Bipartisan group of US senators condemn international criminal court after chief prosecutor’s arrest warrant request
A group of Democratic and Republican US senators has condemned the international criminal court (ICC) after its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, yesterday requested arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, defense minister Yoav Gallant and the leaders of Hamas.
In a statement, the Democrats Ben Cardin, Richard Blumenthal, Jeanne Shaheen and John Fetterman and the Republicans Lindsey Graham, Jim Risch, Katie Britt and John Thune argued the ICC should have consulted further with Israel before Khan’s decision to seek warrants.
“These actions by the ICC jeopardize efforts to bring about sustainable peace in the Middle East. It puts at risk sensitive negotiations to bring home hostages, including Americans, and surge humanitarian assistance,” they write.
“The application for arrest warrants also draws a false equivalence between Israel with its longstanding commitment to the rule of law, and Hamas’ theocratic, autocratic, and unaccountable rule over Gaza. To state the obvious: Israel is a functioning democracy, while Hamas is a terrorist organization.”
Here’s more:
Representatives of the ICC were supposed to be in Israel today to set up meetings between Israeli officials and ICC Prosecutor Khan’s team next week to discuss allegations and concerns. This was a process we encouraged, as it is consistent with the principle of complementarity.
The ICC’s precipitous action in applying for arrest warrants in this instance runs contrary to the promotion of rule of law globally; Israel has a long history as a functioning democracy, with an independent judiciary and military justice system. We have great confidence in the Israeli judicial system’s ability to administer justice. The principle of complementarity should be honored, allowing a nation’s legal system to act first.
Israel is encouraging its allies to boycott the warrants. Neither the United States nor Israel are parties to the Rome statute, which created the ICC:
Trump deletes video mentioning ‘unified reich’ from Truth Social account
Donald Trump appears to have deleted a video posted on his Truth Social account that contains language mentioning a “unified reich”. The video could once be found here, but the link is no longer active.
The Biden campaign has spent most of this morning slamming Trump for using the language in a video touting his plans if returned to the White House, which was first spotted by the Associated Press. In a statement following the deletion of the video, a Biden campaign spokesperson, James Singer, said its publication was “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.”
The defense has rested in Donald Trump’s trial on business fraud charges in New York City, without calling the former president to the witness stand.
Earlier, Trump insisted to reporters outside the courtroom that he never rests – despite ample evidence that he caught a good amount of sleep during the trial:
TRUMP: “We’ll be resting pretty quickly, resting meaning resting the case. I won’t be resting. I don’t rest. I’d like to rest sometimes, but I don’t get to rest.” pic.twitter.com/Ei9rvSfl0b
— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) May 21, 2024
Here’s more on the trial so far:
White House calls Nazi language ‘abhorrent, sickening and disgraceful’ after Trump video mentions ‘unified reich’
The White House has issued a denunciation of Nazi content after a video Donald Trump shared on social media included the phrase “unified reich”.
While noting that federal law prohibits him from commenting on the 2024 election, the White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said: “It is abhorrent, sickening and disgraceful for anyone to promote content associated with Germany’s Nazi government under Adolf Hitler.”
And in case there was any doubt about who he was referring to, Bates added: “Just as it is disgraceful to dine with neo-Nazis, or to say there were ‘very fine people on both sides’ after Charlottesville, or to falsely claim that Hitler ‘did some good things’.” Those are all things Trump has done or said.
“Any antisemitic dog-whistling is dangerous and offensive – and profoundly un-American,” Bates said.
The Senate’s Democratic majority leader, Chuck Schumer, is planning to hold a vote on Thursday on the Border Act, which would tighten US immigration policies in a bid to stem the flow of migrants entering over the southern border:
Moments ago, @SenSchumer FILED CLOTURE on the Motion to Proceed to S. 3461, the bipartisan Border Act, setting up a Senate floor vote on Thursday.
— U.S. Senate Majority Floor Updates (@DSenFloor) May 21, 2024
The Republican leaders of the House of Representatives have vowed that the bill is “dead on arrival”. They are demanding Democrats support their own hardline legislation to restart Donald Trump’s immigration policies, including construction of a wall on the southern border, and the “remain in Mexico” policy that forces asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their claims are considered.
The Border Act also has detractors on the left, who worry its strict policies would undermine America’s humanitarian obligations. Schumer’s bid for passage in the Senate is largely seen as a way to provide cover to vulnerable Democratic senators up for re-election in November who are facing concerns from their constituents over migrant arrivals.
Back in Washington DC, Donald Trump’s allies are seeking passage of legislation to bar non-citizens from voting in federal elections – which is illegal already. If you are wondering why they are bothering with it, the Guardian’s Peter Stone has the answer:
Dozens of Donald Trump’s allies and election denialists, including extremists like lawyer Cleta Mitchell and ex-adviser Stephen Miller, are promoting a bill to bar non-citizens from voting in federal elections, even though it’s already illegal and evidence that non-citizens have voted in federal races is almost nil.
The push for the bill is seen as further evidence of extremist tactics used by ex-president Trump and his Maga movement to rev up his base of supporters for the 2024 election with outlandish claims designed to scaremonger over election fraud and far-right rhetoric detached from reality.
It also fits a pattern, that many Trump allies appear to be laying the groundwork for false complaints of election fraud should Trump suffer electoral defeat again in 2024 – raising fears that the US could see a civic crisis similar to what followed the 2020 contest when his allies attacked the Capitol in Washington DC.
The legislation’s rationale, which Trump touted at a Mar-a-Lago event with the House speaker, Mike Johnson, last month, has drawn sharp criticism from voting experts and even some Republicans.
Donald Trump’s trial in New York City on business fraud charges is heading towards its conclusion, with the final defense witness on the stand right now.
The former president appears unlikely to testify, but arguments have not yet concluded. Follow our live blog for the latest from inside the courtroom:
This is not the first time that Donald Trump’s rhetoric has strayed towards territory once used by Adolf Hitler and his ilk.
A book about Trump’s presidency released two years ago reported that he had asked his White House chief of staff, retired Marine corps general John Kelly: “Why can’t you be like the German generals?” When Kelly asked what he meant, Trump replied: “The German generals in World War II.” Those would be Nazis.
Trump was apparently fond of making such remarks to Kelly, who served as his top White House aide from 2017 to 2019, because a different book released in 2022 reported that Trump told Kelly: “Well, Hitler did a lot of good things.”
Joe Biden has attempted to make the connection between Trump’s rhetoric and what the Nazis once used explicit, particularly after he last year said he would “root out” people who “live like vermin” in the United States:
Trump campaign blames ‘random account’ and staffer error for ‘unified reich’ video
In a statement to the Associated Press, Donald Trump’s campaign press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, blamed the posting of a video that included the word “unified reich” on a third party, and a mix-up by a staffer:
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.
Biden campaign assails Trump after video ex-president’s posts video mentioning ‘unified reich’
Good morning, US politics blog readers. The Biden campaign is on the offensive against Donald Trump after a video appeared on his Truth Social account that included the words “unified reich”. The text appears in the background of a 30-second clip that makes staple Trump campaign promises, such as closing the border and mass deportations, and it may have been lifted from Wikipedia, the Associated Press reports. But Joe Biden’s re-election operation insists that the video, which was posted during a lunch break in his business fraud trial in New York and remains online, is further proof of the ex-president’s dictatorial intent if he is returned to the White House. “America, stop scrolling and pay attention. Donald Trump is not playing games; he is telling America exactly what he intends to do if he regains power: rule as a dictator over a ‘unified reich,’” Biden-Harris campaign spokesman James Singer said in a statement last night.
Trump posts a new ad foreshadowing a second Trump term that says he will create a “UNIFIED REICH,” echoing Nazi Germany pic.twitter.com/z4ZmMSWuRH
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) May 21, 2024
The president is looking for an edge over Trump as he contends with polls that continue to show him trailing his predecessor in crucial swing states. We’ll see if this makes a difference.
Here’s what else is happening today:
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Biden is scheduled for a lengthy day of campaigning, with a speech set at 1.30pm ET in Nashua, New Hampshire, on legislation that expands healthcare to veterans exposed to toxins, followed by two campaign receptions in Boston in the evening.
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It is primary day in a bunch of states, including Georgia, where Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney who is prosecuting Trump and others for election fraud, faces Democratic voters.
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The Senate will vote on Thursday on legislation to tighten immigration policy, Democratic majority leader Chuck Schumer announced yesterday, but the measure is certain to go nowhere in the Republican-led House of Representatives.
