In recent ads attacking antifa, the Trump campaign displayed an inverted red triangle similar to the one Nazis used to designate political prisoners in concentration camps.
The symbol appeared in Facebook ads run by President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, as well as the “Team Trump” page.
“Dangerous MOBS of far-left groups are running through our streets and causing absolute mayhem. They are DESTROYING our cities and rioting – it’s absolute madness,” the campaign wrote above the inverted red triangle in the ads. “It’s important that EVERY American comes together at a time like this to send a united message that we will not stand for their radical actions any longer. We’re calling on YOU to make a public statement and add your name to stand with President Trump against ANTIFA. Please add your name IMMEDIATELY to stand with your President and his decision to declare ANTIFA a Terrorist Organization.”
The Washington Post reports: A red inverted triangle was first used in the 1930s to identify Communists, and was applied as well to Social Democrats, liberals, Freemasons and other members of opposition parties. The badge forced on Jewish political prisoners, by contrast, featured a red inverted triangle superimposed on a yellow triangle. … Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, said, “The red triangle is an antifa symbol,” pointing to examples of iPhone cases and water bottles branded with the insignia. A more common emblem for the anti-fascist movement includes two flags, one red and one black, enclosed in a circle. Although certain symbols the Nazis deployed have been reclaimed, including the pink triangle used in concentration camps to label homosexual inmates, the red triangle has not been recast in a similar way, said Jacob S. Eder, a historian of modern Germany at the Barenboim–Said Akademie in Berlin.
More from Media Matters: On June 17, the campaign ran 88 ads on the Facebook pages for Trump, Pence, and Team Trump with an inverted red triangle. The red triangle was used for political prisoners in Nazi concentration camps. … Facebook has previously let Trump run thousands of ads fearmongering about an immigrant “invasion,” even though the ads violated Facebook’s standards. Facebook also let the Trump campaign publish at least 529 ads with false claims of voter fraud. The Trump campaign used anti-Semitic imagery in the previous election cycle as well. In 2016, Trump used a meme that featured the Star of David on a background of money to call Hillary Clinton the “most corrupt candidate ever.” Trump would eventually suggest that it was intended to be a sheriff’s star. The 2016 campaign also did significant outreach to neo-Nazi figures. Campaign surrogates Diamond and Silk did an interview with a Holocaust denier. The Trump campaign gave press credentials to a white nationalist radio program, Donald Trump Jr. appeared on the program, and a Trump adviser gave interviews to that program at the Republican National Committee convention in Cleveland.
