Former President Donald Trump received backlash on Monday after he released a campaign ad featuring text about the “creation of a unified Reich.”
The ad, produced in the style of fictitious newspaper articles about a Trump victory in 2024, included multiple paragraphs of placeholder text from World War 1 that the Trump campaign seemingly forgot to remove.
“It’s a landslide! Trump wins!” declared a headline in the ad above a section of placeholder text that read, “First World War (often abbreviated as WW1 or WWI).”
“What’s next for America?” another headline questioned above a column of text which read, “Industrial strength significantly increased, driven by the creation of a unified reich.”
The text in question featured to the bottom left of the fictitious newspaper headline
Other parts of the ad featured placeholder text about “the European great powers” and the digging of trenches next to headlines such as, “Border is closed. 15 million illegal aliens deported,” and “Peace through strength.”
The placeholder text about “
Screenshot
While the ad caused an uproar on social media, with President Joe Biden’s campaign accusing Trump of “echoing Nazi Germany,” the controversial text appeared to be leftover placeholder text from a video editing template for Adobe After Effects.
The “Newspaper Vintage History Headlines” template, which is available to download as part of a subscription service online, includes the same placeholder text about World War 1 which was spotted in Trump’s ad.
While many are aware of the term “Reich” in the context of the Nazi Third Reich, the term was also used by the German Empire – or the Second Reich – from 1871 until the end of World War 1 in 1918.
Watch above via the Trump campaign.