Hillary Clinton has not pulled punches in calling out the threat, as she perceives it, that former President Donald Trump poses to democracy. The former Secretary of State, who lost the 2016 presidential election to Trump, has repeatedly warned that Trump means what he says — something Trump’s supporters, perhaps ironically, don’t agree with — and that Trump’s statements should be taken seriously. Those include being a dictator on “day one” and other threats that Trump plans to run an autocratic regime if he wins re-election, one that would seek vengeance against his political rivals.
Clinton often uses the famous Maya Angelou coinage to describe what she sees as a realist approach to dealing with Trump. “When people show you who they are,” Angelou wrote, “believe them.”
Today after a video was posted to Trump’s Truth Social account that promises a second Trump term will present a “unified reich,” Clinton slammed Trump in her most explicit terms yet. In sharing an AP story about the video, Clinton wrote “Take a look at Grifter Hitler over here…”
Take a look at Grifter Hitler over here… https://t.co/8szuB2DH8t pic.twitter.com/kBaL9EIx7r
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 21, 2024
AP gave the Trump team the benefit of the doubt, downplaying the Nazi-related dog whistle and supplying a fuller history of the word reich. The article Clinton shared reads, in part: “The word ‘Reich’ is often largely associated with Nazi Germany’s Third Reich, though the references in the video Trump shared appear to be a reference to the formation of the modern pan-German nation, unifying smaller states into a single Reich, or empire, in 1871.” The video has been removed for now.