President Donald Trump’s campaign drew fire Wednesday after an activist group compared a shirt design on the official campaign website with Nazi iconography.
The Trump campaign dismissed the allegations as “moronic” in a statement to the Daily Caller and pointed to a long American legacy of using the bald eagle to represent the country.
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action circulated the images Wednesday morning, writing “The President of the United States is campaigning for reelection with a Nazi symbol. Again. On the left: an official Trump/Pence ‘America First’ tee. On the right; the Iron Eagle, the official symbol of the Nazi party.”
The President of the United States is campaigning for reelection with a Nazi symbol. Again.
On the left: an official Trump/Pence “America First” tee.
On the right; the Iron Eagle, the official symbol of the Nazi party.
⁰It’s not an accident. Bigotry is their entire brand. pic.twitter.com/mSOBxwf7Wa— Bend the Arc: Jewish Action (@jewishaction) July 1, 2020
The site appears to be selling the design in question in both men’s and women’s sizes.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) lists the Nazi Eagle as a hate symbol based off the German coat of arms, but later “appropriated by neo-Nazis and other white supremacists worldwide” after World War II.
ADL writes that “the symbol originally featured an eagle clutching a swastika, but many variations replace the swastika with some other hate symbol, such as SS bolts or a Celtic Cross. Occasionally, extremists will leave the circle blank where the swastika normally would appear; this seems to be more common in countries where the swastika is prohibited.”
The ADL does note that not all eagle symbols are derived from Nazi uniforms. The group lists Franklin Roosevelt’s Blue Eagle mascot for the National Industrial Recovery Act as one specific example.
This is the second time in recent weeks the Trump campaign has been accused of using Nazi symbols. In June, Facebook suspended campaign ads that violated company policy by featuring red triangles, a symbol The New York Times reported was used by Nazis to identify Communists. The campaign at the time claimed the symbols have been appropriated by antifa.
“In Democrats’ America, Mount Rushmore glorifies white supremacy and the bald eagle with an American flag is a Nazi symbol,” he said in a statement. “They have lost their minds.”
Murtaugh referred to multiple examples of other instances of the American government incorporating eagles into official signage, including:
Mace of the U.S. House of Representatives
Great Seal of the United States