Donald Trump salute provokes Hitler comparisons on social media

Marcy Oster
Published March 6, 2016

People raising their arms as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump asks them to pledge that they will vote for him during a campaign rally at the CFE Arena on the campus of the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida, March 5, 2016. ( Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP)

People raising their arms as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump asks them to vote for him during a campaign rally at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida, March 5, 2016. ( Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP)

Images of Donald Trump supporters at a campaign rally raising their right hands in a pledge to the Republican presidential front-runner prompted Hitler comparisons on social media.

Trump has been compared to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler before, including hours before the rally by comedian Louis C.K., but photographs and videos from the Saturday event in Orlando, Florida, yielded unusually vivid visuals.

“Raise your right hand. I do solemnly swear that I — no matter how I feel, no matter what the conditions, if there’s hurricanes or whatever — will vote, on or before the 12th for Donald J. Trump for president,” Trump said, as hands went up throughout the audience in the arena of the University of Central Florida amid loud cheers and a recitation of the “pledge.”

“Don’t forget you all raised your hands,” Trump said. “You swore. Bad things happen if you don’t live up to what you just did.”

Twitter and Facebook were quickly flooded with posts sharing images from the event and comparisons to 1930s Nazi rallies in Germany, including some black-and-white crowd shots from the time. Among those who weighed in were political analysts

… comedians

… and Jewish commentators. 

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.