Since taking office in 2016, U.S President Donald Trump has initiated many controversial procedures regarding border control along the U.S and Mexico border. These immigration policies have reminded many Americans of the disturbing, antisemitic policies carried out in Nazi Germany between 1933-1945. These actions have sparked fear in many U.S. citizens, wondering if Donald Trump is the world’s next brutal, racist and power hungry dictator who may be following in the footsteps of Adolf Hitler.
This concern easily initiates a ray of panic for left-wing, liberal Americans who believe the conservative party is pursuing racist and antisemitic principle in order to preserve “White America”. That very fear is likely what lead to the creation of this Twitter meme aims at an antisemitic connection between President Trump and Nazi ideology. Seeing this image on your feed, instantly grabs one’s attention and leaves them in disbelief. It sparks fear and uncertainty. On Facebook, I have a relative who constantly shares multiple memes a day that compare Trump to Nazis, similar to this image I found on Google Images. I figured it would be interesting to see if there really was any comparison between the two.
I began my fact-checking investigation by first learning about Goebbels role in Nazi Germany. Under the title Reich Minister, he was in charge of propaganda and was well known for administering “progressively harsher discrimination, including the extermination of the Jews” (Wikipedia). According to PoliticsMeanPolitics.com there is record of Goebbels referring to Jews as animals after visiting a ghetto in Poland.
After researching Trumps quote on DuckDuckGo, I was led to an article on USA Today’s website published in May 2018, verifying his comment of referring to immigrants as animals. Though it is an exact quote of Trump, its use in the meme is inaccurate. Next, I turned to Snopes. After typing in the exact quote by Trump, I quickly noticed the statements had already been fact-checked by other individuals and received mixed reviews as only part of the claim was true.
According to Snopes the comment was made during a press conference between President Trump and Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims regarding ICE policies and how to handle immigrants crossing the border with criminal records. The “animal” metaphor did not pertain to all immigrants. It was pointed directly to those who were affiliated with the violent MS-13 gang. Also, the photo of President Trump on the meme is not a photo of the actual press conference in which this statement was made. This is noticeable on the USA Today website where there is a YouTube video embedded on the site where Trump makes the “animal” comment. By using an image with a U.S Border Patrol symbol in the background further adds to the author’s inaccurate comment about the president making these claims after viewing immigrant detention centers. The date, setting and location specified in the meme are incorrect even though it is an actual quote from Donald Trump.
After looking further into the matter it also became clear the author of this particular meme is clearly a biased individual. I was able to find information on the author, Will Bunch, since his name is clearly visible in the meme. After Googling his name I learned he is a writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Scrolling through the Google search results, I was clicked on a link to the Huffpost website with information about three books Bunch has published over the past several years that share his leftist views. After resorting back to the Philadelphia Inquirer link, his personal biography confirmed by suspicion of him being biased against right-wing politics. According to his bio, Bunch describes himself as “the national opinion columnist — and I have some strong opinions about what’s happening in America, including social injustice, income inequality and, especially, Donald Trump”.
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