Harris slams ‘appalling’ Trump after he deletes Truth Social video with Nazi reference

Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday condemned former president Donald Trump’s use of Nazi rhetoric after he shared — then deleted — a video referencing a “unified Reich” in the US after his hypothetical re-election this fall.

Harris told attendees at the Service Employees International Union convention in Philadelphia that the ex-president’s use of such rhetoric shows the stakes of this year’s presidential election.

“This kind of rhetoric is unsurprising coming from the former president and it is appalling,” she said. “And we’ve got to tell him who we are. And once again, it shows our freedoms and our very democracy are at stake”.

The 30-second clip, which was posted on Monday evening and quickly stoked outrage, showed several hypothetical news headlines in the instance that Trump wins the 2024 presidential election.

“It’s a landslide!” bursts onto the screen in the fabricated newspaper clipping. “Trump wins!!”

The next headline questions “What’s next for America?,” along with a photograph of the former president staunchly holding up a fist to a backdrop of the American flag.

But on closer inspection, the faux article becomes problematic.

“Industrial strength significantly increased, driven by the creation of a unified Reich,” it reads.

“Reich” derives from the Germanic world “realm”, referring to an empire. It also carries the connotation of Germany’s former dictator Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich, another name for his Nazi regime.

The Trump campaign’s national press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said in a statement that the video in question was “not a campaign video” and blamed a campaign staffer for the offensive post.

“This was not a campaign video, it was created by a random account online and reposted by a