The unhinged MAGA "meme team" apparently behind Trump's "unified Reich" video

[Nevilledog]

https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/unhinged-maga-meme-team-apparently-behind-trumps-unified-reich-video

Content warning: Language highlighted in this piece includes extreme anti-LGBTQ, ableist, and misogynistic commentary and slurs, and other profane language.

After former President Donald Trump posted a video mentioning a “unified Reich,” his campaign blamed a “random account” but left out that the account is seemingly part of a pro-Trump “meme team” that has ties to the campaign and is apparently led by Brenden Dilley, a podcaster who regularly spews extreme and hateful rhetoric on his online show.

On May 20, Trump posted on Truth Social a short video that shows hypothetical newspaper articles from after a Trump victory, including three mentions of a “unified Reich.” As The Associated Press explained, “The word 'Reich' is often largely associated with Nazi Germany’s Third Reich, though the references in the video Trump shared appear to be a reference to the formation of the modern pan-German nation, unifying smaller states into a single Reich, or empire, in 1871.”

The post was deleted after Trump’s campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the video “was created by a random account online and reposted by a staffer who clearly did not see the word.”

Despite Leavitt’s claims that the video came from a “random” online account, the AP revealed it “appears to have been created” by a meme creator who goes by the username Ramble_Rants and is part of a “group of meme makers” that has ties to Trump’s campaign.

The account repeatedly defended and posted the video in response to criticism, saying it didn’t invoke “anything except peace and prosperity for Americans,” and the account positively responded to other users that offered praise after Trump shared the video.

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