Former President Donald Trump compared the Biden administration to Nazi Germany’s secret police force during remarks to donors at his golf club on Saturday, according to a recording of the event obtained by NBC News. Trump, while expressing frustration about ongoing legal challenges and indictments of his associates in Arizona, characterized the legal actions against him as unjust persecution by the Biden team.
“These people are running a Gestapo administration,” Trump stated. “And it’s the only thing they have. And it’s the only way they’re going to win in their opinion.”
He specifically targeted President Joe Biden and special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading prosecution in two of Trump’s criminal cases. Andrew Bates, a White House spokesperson, swiftly rebuked Trump’s comparison in a statement to The Daily Beast.
“Instead of echoing the appalling rhetoric of fascists, lunching with Neo Nazis, and fanning debunked conspiracy theories that have cost brave police officer their lives, President Biden is bringing the American people together around our shared democratic values and the rule of law—an approach that has delivered the biggest violent crime reduction in 50 years,” Bates said.
