The New York Times is facing intense criticism over a headline on an article about former President Donald Trump's Veteran's Day speech calling his political enemies "vermin."
The Times article, according to screenshots of the headline, was originally titled "Trump Takes Veterans Day Speech in a Very Different Direction." Based on a Sunday social media post stating the original headline and linking to the article, the outlet appears to have since changed the headline to "In Veterans Day Speech, Trump Promises to 'Root Out' the Left."
According to The Washington Post, the GOP frontrunner vilified his domestic opponents and critics during the Saturday speech, calling them "vermin" and suggesting that they present a greater threat to the nation than countries like Russia, China or North Korea. The comments also drew a sharp rebuke from historians who connected the language to that of fascist dictators Hitler and Mussolini.
“We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections,” Trump said near the end of his remarks, regurgitating false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. “They’ll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American Dream.”
Trump went on to state that the threats against the country from forces outside the United States are "far less sinister, dangerous and grave" than the internal threats.
"Our threat is from within," he said. "Because if you have a capable, competent, smart, tough leader, Russia, China, North Korea, they’re not going to want to play with us.”
Trump used the New Hampshire speech to reiterate his messages of vengeance and grievance as he dubbed himself a "very proud election denier" and bemoaned his ongoing legal battles by again taking aim at the judge overseeing his New York civil trial and special counsel Jack Smith, who has brought two federal indictments accusing the former president of illegally retaining national security documents and scheming to overturn the 2020 election.
“The Trump-hating prosecutor in the case, his wife and family despise me much more than he does and I think he’s about a ten,” Trump said. “They’re about a 15, on a scale of ten. … He’s a disgrace to America.”
In his remarks, Trump also portrayed himself as a victim of a political system bent on going after him and his supporters. But his use of the word "vermin" in the remarks and in a Truth Social post on Saturday drew magnified backlash.
“The language is the language that dictators use to instill fear,” Timothy Naftali, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, told The Washington Post. “When you dehumanize an opponent, you strip them of their constitutional rights to participate securely in a democracy because you’re saying they’re not human. That’s what dictators do.”
Longtime Harvard legal scholar Laurence Tribe called Trump's comments "straight-up Nazi talk."
New York University historian Ruth Ben Ghiat told the Post via email that "calling people 'vermin’ was used effectively by Hitler and Mussolini to dehumanize people and encourage their followers to engage in violence.”
“Trump is also using projection: note that he mentions all kinds of authoritarians ‘communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left’ to set himself up as the deliverer of freedom,” Ben-Ghiat added. “Mussolini promised freedom to his people too and then declared dictatorship.”
Presidential historian Jon Meacham warned on MSNBC that "to call your opponents vermin and to dehumanize them is to not only open the door but to walk through the door toward the most ghastly kinds of crimes."
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung pushed back on the comparisons, telling the Post that “those who try to make that ridiculous assertion are clearly snowflakes grasping for anything because they are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome and their entire existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House.”
Fascism expert and Yale University professor Jason Stanley, however, echoed the historians' sentiments during a Sunday MSNBC appearance, telling host Mehdi Hasan that Trump's speech "doesn't echo 'Mein Kampf'" — the title of Hitler's 1925 autobiographical manifesto detailing his political ideology — "this is textbook ‘Mein Kampf.’”
“Any antisemite will hear this vocabulary as directed against Jews,” Stanley argued.
“It doesn’t echo ‘Mein Kamph,’ this is textbook ‘Mein Kampf.'"
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) November 13, 2023
Fascism expert and Yale professor Jason Stanley, to me, on Trump's disgusting attack on "vermin" and the left yesterday in his Veteran's Day remarks:pic.twitter.com/K0Smw8h4hh
Ian Bassin, the founder of nonpartisan group Protect Democracy compared The Times headline to Forbes', which reads "Trump Compares Political Foes to 'Vermin" on Veterans Day — Echoing Nazi Propaganda."
"One of these might save us from a nightmare; the other might help deliver it. Cmon NYT. Do better," Bassin, a former associate White House counsel, wrote on X/Twitter.
.@nytimes on the left. @Forbes on the right. One of these might save us from a nightmare; the other might help deliver it. Cmon NYT. Do better. pic.twitter.com/8zDZn6H9L3
— Ian Bassin 🇺🇦 (@ianbassin) November 13, 2023
"The Washington Post's headline — late in arriving, but on the mark when it did — makes the original header at the New York Times sound almost surreal: 'Trump takes Veterans day speech in a very different direction,'" New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen said, highlighting the Post's "Trump calls political enemies 'vermin' echoing dictators Hitler, Mussolini" headline. "That's quiescent."
The Washington Post's headline — late in arriving, but on the mark when it did — makes the original header at the New York Times sound almost surreal: "Trump takes Veterans day speech in a very different direction."
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) November 13, 2023
That's quiescent. pic.twitter.com/yjbohusBRI
"Has the media not learned anything?" tweeted former Mueller prosecutor Andrew Weissman. "BE TRUTHFUL means not sugar coating lies and branding the material editorializing. Trump plays on that weakness."
Has the media not learned anything? BE TRUTHFUL means not sugar coating lies and branding the material editorializing. Trump plays on that weakness https://t.co/hPYFUAupgU
— Andrew Weissmann (weissmann11 on Threads)🌻 (@AWeissmann_) November 13, 2023
"I study the breakdown of democracy, and I don't know how to say this more clearly," Brian Klaas, a political scientist at University College London, warned on MSNBC. "We are sleepwalking towards authoritarianism."
"I study the breakdown of democracy, and I don't know how to say this more clearly: We are sleepwalking towards authoritarianism." --@brianklaas pic.twitter.com/1ke6Uyw8Zz
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) November 13, 2023
