Donald Trump on Monday told supporters in Georgia he is “the opposite of a Nazi,” as he responded to comparisons of his Sunday rally at Madison Square Garden to a 1939 pro-Nazi gathering at the same venue.
The former president also sought to turn criticism of his rally into a flashpoint for all Trump supporters by falsely claiming Vice President Kamala Harris is calling those who cast their ballots for him Nazis.
“The newest line from Kamala and her campaign is that anyone who isn’t voting for her is a Nazi,” Trump told supporters at a rally in Georgia, a line that his Democratic rival has not actually said.
Harris pounced last week after The Atlantic reported that Trump, while in the White House, had expressed admiration for the loyalty of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi generals. That report was substantiated by retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, Trump’s chief of staff from 2017 to 2019, who separately told The New York Times that Trump fit the definition of a fascist.
Harris responded to those reports at a CNN town hall, saying she thinks Trump is a fascist and that “the people who know him best on this subject should be trusted.” Her campaign has also used The Atlantic’s report and Kelly’s remarks in advertisements in recent days.
Trump seemed to be responding to those comments Monday night in Georgia, when he said his father had urged him never to describe people as Nazis or Hitler.
“He used to always say: ‘Never use the word Nazi. Never use that word.’ And he’d say: ‘Never use the word Hitler. Don’t use that word,’” Trump said.
Referring to Democrats, Trump added: “They use that word — really, it’s both words. ‘He’s Hitler.’ And then they say, ‘He’s a Nazi.’”
“I’m not a Nazi,” Trump said. “I’m the opposite of a Nazi.”
Trump also responded to Harris calling him a fascist by saying, “She’s a fascist, OK? She’s a fascist.”
Trump’s description of Harris comes despite Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell days earlier calling the vice president’s use of the word “reckless” and claiming it could lead to violence.
The attacks on Harris come amid the political fallout of Trump’s Sunday rally at the iconic Madison Square Garden, where a comedian opening for the former president called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” — a comment that drew widespread condemnation and triggered backlash among a fast-growing Latino group in Pennsylvania.
Harris on Monday told reporters the incendiary remarks at the Trump rally at Madison Square Garden were “not new” for a former president who regularly uses violent rhetoric targeting undocumented immigrants.
“It is just more of the same, and maybe more vivid, than usual,” Harris said. “Donald Trump spends full time trying to have Americans point their finger at each other. He fans the fuel of hate and division, and that’s why people are exhausted with him.”
Harris has not called Trump, or his supporters, Nazis. However, her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, on Sunday said there was “a direct parallel” between Trump’s wild Madison Square Garden rally and the notorious 1939 gathering of Nazi supporters at the landmark arena in New York City.
“And don’t think that he doesn’t know for one second exactly what they’re doing there,” Walz said.
Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, complained Monday about that comparison.
“They decided to compare us to literal Nazis for gathering in Madison Square Garden and celebrating the United States of America. These are the same people, of course, who call us racist for wanting to secure the southern border. They’re the same people who have no plans, no ideas and no solutions. All they have is hatred of their fellow citizens,” Vance said at a campaign stop in Wisconsin.
Later, at another event, Vance argued that the values of American soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy to fight Nazi Germany in World War II are far from the policies Harris supports.
“If you think those brave men were fighting for an open border and sex change surgeries for illegal aliens,” Vance said, “the proper term for you is ‘dipsh*t.’”
CNN’s Kit Maher, Aaron Pellish, Nikki Carvajal, Michael Williams and Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.