Left-wing critics are comparing President Donald Trump to Nazi dictator and mass murderer Adolf Hitler because he used the phrase “good genes” in a speech last week — even though President Barack Obama used the same phrase in a speech.
Trump told an audience in Bemidji, Minnesota, on Saturday:
From St. Paul to St. Cloud, from Rochester to Duluth, and from Minneapolis — thank God we still have Minneapolis — to right here, right here with all of you great people, this state was pioneered by men and women who braved the wilderness and the winters to build a better life for themselves and for their families. They were tough and they were strong. You have good genes. You know that, right? You have good genes. A lot of it’s about the genes, isn’t it? Don’t you believe? The resource theory, you think was so different? You have good genes in Minnesota. They didn’t have a lot of money. They didn’t have a lot of luxury. But they had grit, they had faith, and they had each other. That’s what you have now. You have each other.
The left-wing Huffpost reported:
Critics continue to tear into President Donald Trump’s shocking praise for Minnesota’s “good genes” as chillingly reminiscent of Adolf Hitler’s murderous eugenics policy.
Holocaust historian Steve Silberman on Sunday called Trump’s determination of who possesses worthy genes “indistinguishable from the Nazi rhetoric that led to Jews, disabled people, LGBTQ, Romani and others being exterminated.”
A spokesperson for the progressive Jewish advocacy organization J Street told HuffPost on Monday: “Again and again, President Trump and his allies publicly, gleefully embrace incredibly dangerous white nationalist tropes and ideas.”
It’s “clear the president’s far-right worldview poses an unprecedented threat to refugees, immigrants and vulnerable minorities in this country ― one of the many reasons why he faces vehement opposition from the large majority of American Jewish voters,” said J Street communications director Logan Bayroff.
However, Barack Obama used the same phrase in a speech in Pennsylvania in 2012:
I believe America only thrives when we have a strong and growing middle class. And I believe we’re at our best when everybody who works hard has a chance to get ahead. That’s what I believe. And I know that’s what the founders of this company believe as well. We were talking about these guys’ dad, who I understand just passed away at the age of 101. So these guys have good genes in addition to inventive minds. And the story of generations starting businesses, hiring folks, making sure that if you work hard, you can get ahead, that’s what America is all about. And that’s at the heart of the plan that I’ve been talking about all year.
First Lady Michelle Obama also used the same phrase to praise the beauty of NAACP chairwoman Roslyn Brock in 2010.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.