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Trump social media account shares video mentioning “unified reich”
A video posted to Donald Trump’s account on his social media network Monday included references to a “unified reich” among hypothetical news headlines depicting an election win by him in November.
The headline appears among messages flashing across the screen such as “Trump wins!!” and “Economy booms!” Other headlines appear to be references to World War I.
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 30-second video appeared on Trump’s account at a time when the presumptive Republican nominee for president, while seeking to portray President Biden as soft on antisemitism, has himself repeatedly faced criticism for using language and rhetoric associated with Nazi Germany.
It was posted and shared on the former president’s Truth Social account while he was on a lunch break from his Manhattan hush money trial.
His campaign said the word wasn’t used on purpose.
“This was not a campaign video; it was created by a random account online and reposted by a staffer who clearly did not see the word (reich), while the president was in court,” Karoline Leavitt, the campaign press secretary, said in a statement.
But, reports Agence France-Presse, the Biden campaign said in a forceful statement in response to the video that Trump has a “long history” of anti-Semitic behavior.
“Donald Trump is not playing games. He is telling America exactly what he intends to do if he regains power: rule as a dictator over a ‘unified reich,'” Biden-Harris spokesperson James Singer said in the statement.
Earlier this month, Trump said at a fundraiser that Mr. Biden is running a “Gestapo administration,” referring to the secret Nazi police force.
Trump previously used rhetoric echoing Adolf Hitler when he said immigrants entering the U.S. illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country,” and called his opponents “vermin.”
The former president has also drawn wide backlash for having dined with Holocaust-denying white nationalist Nick Fuentes in 2022 and for downplaying the 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where white nationalists chanted “Jews will not replace us!”
At least one of the headlines flashing in the video appears to be text that is copied verbatim from a Wikipedia entry on World War I: “German industrial strength and production had significantly increased after 1871, driven by the creation of a unified reich.”
In one image, the headlines “Border Is Closed” and “15 Million Illegal Aliens Deported” appear above smaller text with the start and end dates of World War I.
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Royal Caribbean cruise ship rocked by rough weather, images show damage
Bad weather rocked a Royal Caribbean Crusies ship near Spain on Thursday night, causing damage aboard the vessel and requiring the ship to make an unexpected stop to allow a guest to medically disembark.
The Explorer of the Seas was traveling from Barcelona, Spain to Miami, Florida, according to CruiseMapper, a website that shows the position and routes of cruise ships.
The vessel was near Tenerife, the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands, when it was hit by an “unexpected wind gust,” Royal Caribbean Cruises said in a statement.
The wind caused the ship to experience “sudden movement,” the cruise line said.
One person aboard the ship described the movement to CBS News as a “listing,” which means the vessel is tilted to one side. Photos show items knocked down, shattered bottles in a bar area, and other mild damage from the incident.
The cruise line said one passenger was injured and “requires additional medical care.” The ship is making a stop in Las Palmas, Spain, for a medical disembarkation. The cruise line did not offer any additional information about the unidentified passenger’s condition.
The Explorer of the Seas is a 1,020-foot vessel that can hold up to 4,290 guests and 1,185 crew members, according to an Royal Caribbiean Cruises fact sheet. It includes an ice skating rink, a mini-golf course and a rock climbing wall on its fifteen passenger decks. It is registered in the Bahamas and has been sailing since 2000.
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