Biden Spreads Misinformation About Trump Calling for a 'Unified Reich'

Where are the fact-checkers?

On Tuesday, former President Donald Trump's Truth Social account shared a new campaign video created by a random fan. The video featured fake snapshots of future newspaper headlines predicting widespread prosperity under a subsequent Trump presidency. The creator used a preexisting newspaper template and simply replaced some of the headlines, but some of the original text was still visible, and eagle-eyed users spotted a curious phrase: "the creation of a unified Reich."

This prompted many, many, many people on X to proclaim that Trump had endorsed "the creation of a unified Reich," with reference to the Third Reich, another name for Adolf Hitler's Nazi government. The anti-Trump political group The Lincoln Project accused the former president of "openly copying Nazi language." ABC reported that the ad used language "from Nazi Germany" and "referenced Adolf Hitler." CNN's Manu Raju confronted random Republicans in Congress and demanded that they answer for the advertisement. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D–Md.) said that Trump had used an "antisemitic dogwhistle." Even Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich (no relation) opined that this was yet another example of hidden Nazi symbology embedded within the Trump campaign.

The Trump campaign disavowed the ad and deleted the Truth Social post.

But as it turns out, the assertion that Trump was tacitly endorsing some form of Nazi government is highly misleading, if not outright false. The video was made using a newspaper template that is widely available, and that template includes references to the world wars. Some have suggested the template actually refers to WWI, not WWII.

To be clear, the template is just that—a template. The point of the ad is obviously not to suggest that Trump's policies have anything to do with the preexisting headlines.

 

Reich-eous Indignation

Enter President Joe Biden. Just a few hours after the ad attracted so much attention, the Biden campaign released a response video:

Donald Trump posted an ad echoing the language of Nazi Germany.

He only cares about holding on to power.

I care about you. pic.twitter.com/XSmGKaQhJ1

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 21, 2024

In his response, Biden watches the Trump ad and then says—with rising anger—"A unified Reich? That's Hitler's language. That's not America's."

Again, this is an inaccurate summary of the video. But don't hold your breath waiting for the media fact-checkers to spring into action and correct him. Few mainstream journalists bothered to set the record straight. (The Atlantic's David A. Graham and Vox's Zack Beauchamp did, to their credit.) An Axios writeup of Biden's response offers zero pushback. It was the same story at NPR and Politico.

None of this is to say that Trump is free of loathsome associations. He told the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by," and he infamously dined with Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) and white nationalist Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago. (Trump claimed he didn't know Fuentes and had not specifically invited him.) But Biden and the media have seized upon a nothingburger here, and the media's vast fact-checking apparatus is suddenly asleep at the wheel.

 

This Week on Free Media

I'm joined by Amber Duke, and we discuss Whoopi Goldberg's defense of Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, the kerfuffle over Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's upside-down American flag, the latest from Trump's hush money trial, and Jon Stewart's take on cancel culture.

 

Worth Watching

I just finished Shogun (excellent) and completed my re-watch of The Sopranos (also excellent), which means I need a new show. What should I watch next? Send recommendations.