Reuters
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump accused President Joe Biden of running a “Gestapo administration” in a private speech to donors in which he also attacked prosecutors in his criminal cases, according to a recording heard by US media.
Trump, whose rhetoric has drawn accusations of fascist tendencies from civil rights groups and other critics, made the comparison to Nazi police in Germany's World War II regime at a donor retreat Saturday night at his complex. Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.
The comments came after Trump again complained that multiple accusations against him were politically motivated. They have just concluded 11 days of a bribery trial in New York in which he is accused of falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 payment to an adult film star.
“These people are running a Gestapo administration,” Trump said, according to an audio recording heard by The New York Times and The Washington Post. “And it's the only thing they have. And it's the only way they're going to win, in his opinion, and it's actually killing them. But it doesn't bother me."
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the reported statements.
Trump, who held office from 2017 to 2021, faces a series of legal problems in criminal and civil cases as he seeks to regain the presidency in the Nov. 5 election.
The former president has made a series of inflammatory and racist statements during the campaign, using violent images to attack migrants and opponents. He has warned of violence if he does not win the 2024 elections and has compared migrants to animals.
In November, Biden attacked Trump for using the word “vermin” to refer to his political enemies, saying it echoed the language of Nazi Germany. Also last year, Trump said that migrants entering the country illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
