White House: Trump’s Gestapo comment echoes ‘terrible fascist rhetoric’

The White House on Sunday criticized former President Trump after he compared the Biden administration to the Gestapo police force in Nazi Germany.

“Instead of echoing the terrible rhetoric of fascists, lunching with neo-Nazis, and spreading debunked conspiracy theories that have cost the lives of brave police officers, President Biden is uniting the American people around our shared democratic values ​​and the rule of law – a approach that has delivered the largest reduction in violent crime in 50 years,” Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement.

The New York Times first reported that Trump, speaking at a retreat for Republican donors in Florida on Saturday night, criticized the dozens of criminal charges he faces and alleged that the cases were orchestrated by the Biden White House.

“These people run a Gestapo administration,” Trump said, according to audio obtained by The New York Times. “And it’s the only thing they have. And it’s the only way they can win, in their opinion, and it’s killing them. But that doesn’t bother me.”

Saturday’s event was attended by several prominent Republican lawmakers, including several who would serve as Trump’s running mates in November. Trump’s campaign announced that it had raised $76 million in April and advocated at the event that Trump expand the electoral map before November.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R), who attended the event Saturday, essentially confirmed Trump’s comments during a Sunday appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“This was a brief in-depth commentary on something that wasn’t really central to what he was talking about,” said Burgum, who is running to join Trump on the Republican ticket in November.

“Most Americans feel that the trial he is on now is politically motivated,” Burgum added.

Trump’s comments referred to the secret police force used by Nazi leaders who suppressed political opposition and attacked Jewish people during the Holocaust.

Saturday’s comments were the latest example of Trump drawing criticism for using language reminiscent of dictatorships during World War II.

The former president claimed on several occasions that immigrants who entered the US illegally were “poisoning the blood” of the country, language that Democrats argued was parroted by Hitler.

Last year, Trump also referred to his political opponents as “worms” who posed an internal threat to the country, drawing further condemnation from critics who said this echoed the autocratic language of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.