Donald Trump faced backlash after sharing a video that referenced the "creation of a unified Reich" if the embattled ex-prez wins the 2024 presidential election.
The clip posted to the politician's Truth Social account on Monday, May 20, showed images of photoshopped news articles that promised a booming economy, "15 million" undocumented immigrants deported and a closed border during a second Trump term.
One of the fabricated headlines read: "What’s next for America?" and beneath it the words "creation of a unified Reich" could be seen.
The word "reich" is German and translates roughly to "kingdom" or "empire." The term is heavily associated with dictator Adolf Hitler who declared Germany the "Third Reich."
On the Tuesday, May 21, installment of CNN News Central, Alayna Treene claimed that the video remained up for over 15 hours despite people bringing attention to the offensive nature of the video.
"I asked the Trump campaign, you know, if this is what you’re saying, why have you not removed this video from Donald Trump’s account?" Treene said. "We did not get an answer to that."
The shocking video was up on Trump's account for nearly a day before it was finally taken down.
The 77-year-old's spokesperson Karoline Leavitt later released a statement claiming the ex-POTUS was not the one to post the controversial clip.
"This was not a campaign video," the statement said. "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."
White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said it was "abhorrent, sickening, and disgraceful for anyone to promote content associated with Germany’s Nazi government under Adolf Hitler."
"Any Antisemitic dog whistling is dangerous and offensive — and profoundly un-American," he noted.
President Joe Biden's campaign spokesman James Singer also released a statement warning voters about Trump's alleged intentions for a future presidency.
"Donald Trump is not playing games," he wrote. "He is telling America exactly what he intends to do if he regains power: rule as a dictator over a ‘unified reich.'"
This isn't the first time Trump's posts and remarks have been compared to Hitler. As OK! previously reported, he claimed illegal immigrants were "poisoning the blood of our country" at a 2023 campaign rally.
He later walked back the comments, insisting that he knows "nothing about Hitler."
"They say that he said something about blood. He didn’t say it the way I said it either, by the way," he alleged. "It’s a very different kind of a statement."