This week's cover of a popular German news magazine depicting US President Donald Trump draped in the American flag while giving a stiff-armed Nazi salute is drawing sharp criticism from a prominent Jewish group.
Stern magazine's illustration is part of a cover story headlined "Sein Kampf," which translates as "His Struggle" and is a play on Adolf Hitler's infamous "Mein Kampf." It comes as part of the wave of backlash Trump has faced for not denouncing the Nazis, anti-Semites, racists and white supremasicts at the Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virgina, earlier this month.
Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center human rights center said it has been "outspoken in criticizing President Trump for failing to make a distinction between Nazis and KKK protesters and those who opposed them." But it said "the depiction of the president as a latter-day Hitler by a major German publication is untrue and beyond the pale."
It says "Germans must surely know that by misappropriating" Nazi symbols "they belittle and becloud" past crimes.
After initially criticizing the general "hatred" displayed at the Charotteville, Virginia Nazi rally that devolved into a violent brawl, Trump then denounced those who took part in the Charlotteville rally, including those who chanted "Jews will not replace us." However, Trump followed this up by saying that "very fine people" were on "both sides" of the demonstrations, which drew neo-Nazis, white nationalists and members of the Ku Klux Klan. One woman was killed when an alleged white nationalist drove his car into a group of counterprotesters.
First published: 19:29, 08.25.17