US President Donald Trump’s reelection team has ridiculed the most recent attempt to tie the commander in chief to Nazism after critics compared a campaign T-shirt graphic to a logo commonly used by the Third Reich.
Responding to the allegation that the T-shirt ripped off the emblem of the Nazi Party – spread online by the president’s detractors on Wednesday – Trump’s campaign team dug up photos showing prominent Democratic figures donning similar symbols, asking whether they also had something to hide.
“This is moronic. In Democrats’ America, Mount Rushmore glorifies white supremacy and the bald eagle with an American flag is a Nazi symbol,” the campaign said in a statement addressing the controversy, adding that Democrats “have lost their minds.”
A number of netizens also shot back that eagle symbolism is found in countless American seals and logos dating back centuries. The bird was first chosen for the US national emblem in 1782 following the War for Independence – slightly predating the Nazis’ rise to power over 150 years later. Even self-avowed opponents of the president noted that the eagle theme is not “uncommon,” pointing to the seal of the US Marine Corps and other military symbols.
Believe me, I sympathize with the sentiment, but this theme is not uncommon. I do think they're fascists but I don't need that t-shirt to conclude that. pic.twitter.com/r4Bk0H0Eka
— Equanimity (@shunyata2000) July 2, 2020
Guys ... I’ve been calling Trump and his supporters Nazis for years ... but the eagle on the shirt looks more like it was designed from U.S. military insignias. These are Army colonel and Navy captain ... pic.twitter.com/0ePsGZm3ZC
— Nicolas Falacci (@NickFalacci) July 1, 2020
Here is a picture of Trump's new campaign logo. Here are pictures of the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force emblems. The concept of an eagle looking to the side and spreading its wings is not exclusively Nazi. pic.twitter.com/51lqd1I38v
— LG4President (@LG4President) July 2, 2020
Critics, including a Democratic congressional candidate for Virginia’s 1st district, were not convinced, however, arguing the eagle’s head always faces rightward in American iconography, while the Nazis – as well as the Trump campaign – had the bird facing to the left (so long as one doesn’t count older versions of the US presidential seal or the Nazi ‘Reichsadler,’ that is).
My brother who was in the US Marines remembered to show me that the USMC Eagle always faces to the Right of the person and the Nazi eagle always faces to the left.Trump's new logo follows the Nazi eagle & faces to the left (and it has the KKK America First slogan). https://t.co/DSfy8KcSOEpic.twitter.com/GvAZrtVfA7
— Qasim Rashid for Congress (@QasimRashid) July 2, 2020
One is the Seal of the USA, one is the Trump Shirt, one is the NAZI seal. Which ones does the Trump shirt look like?