BOGUS EXPLANATION

Facebook Removes Trump Campaign Ad That Echoed Nazi Symbol

When pressed on Twitter, the Trump campaign claimed that the inverted triangle was “widely used” for antifa.

A Trump campaign ad on Facebook about left-wing “antifa” antifascist demonstrators used the same symbol once implemented by the Nazis on some concentration concentration camp prisoners. The ad, first reported by the Washington Post, featured an inverted red triangle. During Adolf Hitler’s rule in the 1930s, Nazis used the inverted red triangle to label communists and other political foes. The image choice was even more confusing because inverted red triangles are not generally understood to signify antifa activists.

“Dangerous MOBS for far-left groups are running through our streets and causing absolute mayhem,” the ad read. “They are DESTROYING our cities and rioting - it’s absolute madness.” The Trump campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment. But when pressed on Twitter, the Trump campaign claimed that the inverted triangle was “widely used” to describe antifascist groups. “It's also a symbol widely used by Antifa,” the campaign tweeted. “It was used in an ad about Antifa.”

To prove their thin case that the inverted red triangle is an antifa symbol, the campaign cited a little-known online T-shirt vendor selling a red-triangle shirt with “ANTIFA” scrawled over it. Beyond one T-shirt site, though, there was no proof online that the inverted red triangle is an antifascist symbol. Facebook removed the Trump campaign ad on Thursday, posting a statement on its ad catalogue that it violated Facebook policies. 

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Will SommerPolitics Reporter

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