There comes a point when something can no longer be called a “coincidence” or a “blunder.” We’ve hit that point — passed it, really — with the Trump administration and the campaign (they are one and the same, of course).
The Nazis created the “Nazi Eagle,” or the “Iron Eagle,” in the 1920s, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Of course, like other Nazi images, it is now popular with American white supremacists, neo-Nazis and neo-Confederates — the rock-solid core of Trump’s electoral base.
So, when we see the logo of the Trump 2020 campaign, should we be surprised?
Trumps new logo for 2020 is eerily familiar, where have I seen this before? ? pic.twitter.com/m8czrkYasN
— YS (@NYinLA2121) July 1, 2020
So far this new logo is sold on T-shits that you can get for a cool $30 from the Trump campaign site, which I will not link to because you don’t want the shirt unless you want to give the Trump campaign $30 for the privilege of ceremonially burning it. I wouldn’t bother.
As you might imagine, American Jews — or Jews anywhere, I would imagine — are not happy with this.
Trump & Pence are proudly displaying a Nazi-inspired shirt on their official campaign website.
They are promoting genocidal imagery yet again — just days after President Trump retweeted a video of a supporter chanting “white power.”
Link: https://t.co/U57Hfx6jwy pic.twitter.com/bt9N7Hb8Zb
— Bend the Arc: Jewish Action (@jewishaction) July 1, 2020
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action wrote:
It’s not an accident. Bigotry is their entire brand.
If some right-wing bootlicker wants to try the “it’s a coincidence” or whatever argument, just respond with this, and don’t forget to punch a Nazi:
They look nothing alike pic.twitter.com/cZJ8qjD1hx
— Lyndsay ? (@LyndzLP) July 2, 2020
But the campaign isn’t calling it a mistake. Of course, they’re doubling down on it, claiming that the problem is with the perception and not the reality of the symbol. Trump 2020 communications director Josef Goebbels, er, Tim Murtaugh, said: “In Democrats’ America, Mount Rushmore glorifies white supremacy and the bald eagle with an American flag is a Nazi symbol. They have lost their minds.” Apparently criticism of the logo is “moronic,” in Murtaugh’s words.
The “America First” slogan, another key element of the logo, also has a deep, and ugly, history.
— usurper (@usurper19) July 2, 2020
Early in his campaign, Trump said:
I’m not isolationist, but I am “America First.” So I like the expression. I’m “America First.”
Steven Miller and Steve Bannon co-wrote that March 2016 campaign speech. Both Miller and Bannon are neo-Nazis and white supremacists, and were brought into the Trump campaign because, not in spite of, their stances. (Don’t forget, Trump’s first Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, is an unrepentant white supremacist and neo-Confederate.)
The America First Committee (AFC) was founded in 1940, and initially focused on its opposition of the US entering the war on either side. Its members included socialists, conservatives, and Americans from prominent and wealthy families. Future US President Gerald Ford was a member, as was future Vice-Presidential candidate Sargent Shriver, future Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, and others. But, anti-Semitism and an increasing pro-Nazi slant began to define it, Less than eight weeks before the Pearl Harbor attack, AFC spokesperson Charles Lindbergh delivered a wildly anti-Semitic speech on behalf of the AFC, accusing American Jews of trying to push the US to enter the war against the Nazis. He said Jews’ supposed “large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government” posed a critical threat to the US. Dorothy Thompson, writing for the New York Herald Tribune, wrote: “I am absolutely certain that Lindbergh is pro-Nazi. I am absolutely certain that Lindbergh foresees a new party along Nazi lines.”
The AFC disbanded three days after the Pearl Harbor attacks. In 2000, Reform Party presidential candidate Pat Buchanan used the phrase in his campaign, prompting Trump to label him “a Hitler lover.” Now, almost 70 years later, Trump, Bannon and Miller have resurrected the spectre of that old, American Nazi organization. Who’s the Hitler lover?
Was a campaign logo aping the Iron Eagle a mistake? Of course not.
It was not a mistake for the campaign to run a Facebook ad using an inverted red triangle, which was a badge used by Nazis to identify political prisoners in concentration camps. Facebook eventually stopped running the ad for a violation of its hate speech policies. (The ad exhorted Trump followers to stand against “Antifa,” which in their fever dreams is a large and vicious organization of leftist terrorists determined to overthrow his presidency and burn American cities to the ground. “Antifa” merely stands for “anti-Fascist.” I’m “antifa” and likely so are you. So was President Eisenhower and President Reagan. So is Captain America. Don’t step up against Cap.)
It wasn’t a mistake for the Trump site to sell a commemorative baseball for $88 when every other item on the site sells for a figure ending in zero. 88 is Nazis’ and white supremacists’ code for “Heil Hitler.”
So we’re just not gonna talk about how the official trump store is selling a red-thread baseball for $88 where everything else on the site has an price ending in a zero? Because that seems pretty very much not an accident. pic.twitter.com/7GcFQT93zJ
— I yield my time, f**k you (@will_damnn) July 1, 2020
There are other examples. Lots of them. And there will be more. Just keep in mind, when the pundits on CNN and MSNBC spin around in circles and scratch their heads in confusion as to why the Trump campaign repeatedly does such things, there’s no confusion attached to this at all. They are doing what they mean to do. They are selling Nazi-themed paraphernalia to support their campaign.
Resist.
I’ve always wondered how Trump-O gets a pass on flashing the clinched fist white power sign. It’s really quite obvious.
ONLY because he’s in office and that’s it. Look for all passes to be cancelled in the event he loses in November.
No one can see it clearly, he has a miniscule child’s hand.
Hiya Mae. I don’t know why, but every reference to his little hands makes me grin. I have a middle schooler’s sense of humor. ?
Obviously, so do i.?
????????
‘The Tiny Handed Vulgarian’
An 88 dollar baseball – is it stretching coincidence to recall that ’88’ is also used by neo-Nazi groups as a reference to the 8th letter of the alphabet – H(eil) H(itler)?
Not even a little bit…fascism is consistent on its lack of imagination. Hell, the Nazis had to steal the swastika and the notion of Aryans from India (a blatant instance of cultural appropriation, if you will).
I saw a headline yesterday, that said Trump plans on hitting hard his racist message, since Jared’s influence is not working. Unfortunately none of this surprises me. We will need to clean out this scourge, after he loses re-election.
Funny thing is that this won’t work either.
Cheryl, I keep saying their gonna need a TON of Lysol wipes to clean the White House when tRump and his disgusting crew are forced to leave. Eeeeeeeew, people!!!! ?????? They should definitely wear hazmat suits!
Go ahead, little Nazis. Wear the symbols, try out the uniforms. It’ll just make you easier to identify when it comes time to lower the boom on your lily-white ass.
Why do they love losers so much?
Nazis and Confederates, didn’t they see ‘Blazing Saddles’?
Look to Fritz Weaver’s little speech in Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone episode The Obsolete Man for your answer. They all think their spiritual ancestors had the beginning of the right idea but that it didn’t go far enough. If only they did THIS instead of THAT, surely it would work!
It never occurs to these geniuses that maybe the whole idea was just a bad idea from the start.
“Do it again, but this time do it harder, and this time it will work for sure!” seems to be their motto.
Who could have known that Trump would continue to be an idiot? His new name should be double down don.
To quote the Gary Oldman in The Professional meme, “Eeeeeveryone!” There has never been a moment in this man’s life where his own cleverness spared him from compounding catastrophe. Unlike previous occasions, he’s hit the point where he can no longer even keep his head above water.
It’s all he has.
Glad you are pointing this out.