Former President Donald Trump went after his political opponents in spectacular fashion over the weekend, pledging to “root out” his liberal opponents, labeling them “communists, Marxists, fascists and radical left thugs that live like vermin.”
“We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections. They’ll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American Dream,” Trump said during his Veteran’s Day rally speech in Claremont, New Hampshire, per The Washington Post, adding that “the threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous and grave than the threat from within. Our threat is from within. Because if you have a capable, competent, smart, tough leader, Russia, China, North Korea, they’re not going to want to play with us.”
His remarks sparked panic among his Democratic rivals, who say his words invoked those of Adolf Hitler, the notorious dictator of Nazi Germany who rose to power with his radical doctrine.
Trump is calling American citizens "vermin" when he is literally the definition of vermin. @Lesdoggg pic.twitter.com/5OUbmiVF6w
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) November 14, 2023
“Employing words like ‘vermin’ to describe anyone who makes use of their basic right to criticise the government ‘echoes dictators’ like Hitler and Mussolini,” the White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said.
“Using terms like that about dissent would be unrecognisable to our founders, but horrifyingly recognisable to American veterans who put on their country’s uniform in the 1940s. President Biden believes in his oath to our constitution, and in American democracy. He works to protect both every day.”
Nazi propaganda often characterized Jewish people and political opponents as “vermin, parasites, or diseases” as a way of dehumanizing them, according to research compiled by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
In the past, Trump has called undocumented immigrants “animals,” called Rosie O’Donnell “fat” and “a slob” and former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman a “dog.”
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung defended the former president’s comments.
“Those who try to make that ridiculous assertion are clearly snowflakes grasping for anything because they are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome and their entire existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House,” Cheung told The Washington Post.
Trump, by a long stretch, remains the party frontrunner.
