In news that feels ripped straight from a Babylon Bee parody but is somehow horrifyingly real, Donald Trump decided it was a great time to suggest that Nazis—yes, the actual Nazis—were more humane to their Jewish prisoners than Hamas has been to Israeli hostages. This little moment of Holocaust cosplay happened during a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and if you’re wondering whether this was some kind of out-of-context misunderstanding: it was not.
“Did they give you a piece of bread extra? Did they give you a meal on the side? … Like, you know, what happened in Germany?”
—Donald Trump, actual quote, not a fever dream.
Yes, He Really Said That. And No, It’s Not a One-Off.
If this were just an off-color, historically illiterate aside, we could chalk it up to another entry in Trump’s Greatest Hits of Nonsense. But it’s not. This fits neatly into a years-long pattern of Holocaust distortion, historical revisionism, and flirtation with white nationalist talking points.
Let’s review the highlight reel:
In 2017, Trump’s Holocaust Remembrance Day statement didn’t mention Jews. At all. Just vibes. The Guardian has receipts.
In 2021, his own Chief of Staff, John Kelly, confirmed that Trump said “Hitler did a lot of good things.” (Vanity Fair)
In 2024, Trump posted a video about building a “unified Reich.” When called out, he deleted it. As if that deletes the intent. New York Post broke that one.
So no, this isn’t new. It’s just louder.
This Is Not How You Talk About Genocide.
Let’s be crystal clear: the Holocaust was not some grey-area conflict with moments of kindness and compassion from the oppressors. It was an industrial-scale extermination of 6 million Jews—plus millions more Roma, disabled people, queer folks, and political dissidents—by a regime obsessed with racial purity and authoritarian power.
To even suggest, in passing, that there was “love” in those death camps is not just an ahistorical blunder. It’s Holocaust denial with a PR team.
Historian Deborah Lipstadt, now the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, calls this “soft-core Holocaust denial.” You don’t need to deny the gas chambers; all you have to do is sanitize the narrative until no one recognizes it anymore. She’s written extensively on it.
So Why Does He Keep Doing This?
Because it works for his base. Because historical illiteracy is a feature, not a bug. Because Trump’s rhetorical style is a cheap Vegas buffet of nostalgia, grievance, and nationalism—with a side of “they’re not sending their best.”
He doesn’t care about history unless it flatters him. He doesn’t care about antisemitism unless he’s using it as a cudgel to attack Democrats. He doesn’t even care about Israel, unless it means applause lines and donations. What he does care about is mythmaking—and that means rehabilitating villains when it suits him.
We’ve Been Here Before. We’re Here Again.
This newsletter has already taken deep dives into the broader right-wing effort to whitewash fascism, distort the legacy of the Holocaust, and elevate nationalism to a sacred creed. From the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 to the pseudo-intellectual drivel of Yarvin and Dugin fanboys, the rot is spreading.
Trump isn’t an outlier. He’s the frontman.
Never Again Means Saying “WTF” Loudly and Often.
We can’t afford to laugh this off. When a man with this much power casually rewrites genocide as a moment of reluctant kindness, it’s not a joke. It’s a warning.
And if this is how he talks when he’s in office and live, imagine what’s said whent he cameras aren’t rolling.=.
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