The phrase appears to have been lifted from the Wikipedia entry for WWI.
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Where Trump's 'Unified Reich' Reference Came From
Published May 21, 2024 at 10:22 AM EDT
Updated May 21, 2024 at 10:52 AM EDT
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By
Carlo Versano
Editor, Live News
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Former President
Donald Trump's official Truth Social account posted a campaign video Monday that included
a reference to a "unified Reich" if he returns to the presidency, drawing immediate criticism from President Joe Biden's campaign and many
Democrats who said the video shows that Trump intends to rule as a "dictator" if he is elected to a second White House term in November.
The phrase, which briefly appears on screen as a narrator reads off hypothetical newspaper clippings if Trump wins the presidency again, is visible under the headline: "What's next for America?"
The slightly blurred text reads: "Industrial strength significantly increased ... driven by the creation of a unified Reich."
A screenshot of the Truth Social post, with the "unified Reich" phrase visible in the first line of text on the left. TRUTH SOCIAL/@REALDONALDTRUMP
The wording appears to be lifted from the
Wikipedia entry for World War I. Under the Background section of the Wiki entry, the subsection 'Arms Race' starts: "German industrial strength and production had significantly increased after 1871, driven by the creation of a unified Reich, French indemnity payments, and the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine."
The word "Reich," which means "empire" in German, is often associated with the Nazis, specifically Adolf Hitler's rise to power and his Third Reich that ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945. In the Wikipedia entry, the word is being used to refer to the unification of Germany that happened 50 years prior.
In a statement to
Newsweek, Karoline Leavitt, Trump's campaign press secretary, denied that Trump had anything to do with the video, or knew of the phrase's inclusion in the mocked up headlines.
"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 [former] President was in court. The real extremist is
Joe Biden who has turned his back on Israel and the Jewish people by bowing down to radical antisemites and terrorist sympathizers in his party like
Ilhan Omar and
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez."
The video was removed from Trump's Truth Social account early Tuesday.
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The Biden campaign was quick to jump on the phrase, saying in a statement that Trump is "telling America exactly what he intends to do if he regains power: rule as a dictator over a 'unified reich.' "
Speaking to
Newsweek, Mark Shanahan, who teaches American politics at the University of Surrey in the U.K., said he thought the video was posted deliberately.
"While the Trump campaign often seems less-than-discerning in the choice of material they amplify through Truth Social, they're always conscious of the content. The 'mistakes' they make are conscious and deliberate.
"This story, rather than the conclusion of the prosecution case in the trial against the former president in New York, will dominate the news agenda today. It will be dismissed as a staffer's error while the media wrings its hands over Trump's totalitarian leanings. That's the deflection the GOP wants. Happenstance or a 'mistake' by design? Probably the latter."