Michael Moore compares Donald Trump's Boy Scouts address to scene from Nazi documentary
President Trump has come under fire for giving a politically charged speech to 40,000 American Boy Scouts at the National Scout Jamboree in West Virginia on Monday.
Addressing the cheering youngsters, Trump initially said: ‘Who wants to talk about politics?” but it wasn’t long before he used the rally to talk about ‘fake news’ and even goaded the boys into booing Barack Obama by reminding them the former president had never attended a Boy Scouts gathering.
Despite the crowd’s enthusiasm, critics – including many parents – have spoken out about Trump using the occasion as an impromptu political rally, calling it ‘appalling’.
And McDonald’s hating activist Michael Moore has gone one further and compared it to scenes from the propaganda Nazi film, Triumph of the Will – a chronicle of the 1934 Nuremberg Rally attended by 700,000 Nazi supporters, among them thousands of Hitler Youth.
I'm an Eagle Scout. Trump using the 30,000 BoyScouts as his props tonight was a scene out of Triumph of the Will. Shocking abuse of children
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) July 25, 2017
Moore is an ‘Eagle Scout’ (the highest attainable rank in the Scouting program) but compared Trump’s involvement in his boyhood organisation to ‘abuse’.
New York Times correspondent Binyamin Appelbaum has also weighed in, claiming that what Trump did was ‘against the rules’ as political leaders are forbidden to endorse their party at flag ceremonies.
This is the Boy Scouts' official policy on participation in political events. The short version: What happened tonight is against the rules. pic.twitter.com/Q3GvSypELb
— Binyamin Appelbaum (@BCAppelbaum) July 25, 2017
Meanwhile Trump said that he wanted to help the Scouts ‘achieve their dreams’ and posted a rousing Tweet urging them to ‘LOVE AND CHERISH’ their country.
#2017Jambo– Remember your duty. Honor your history. Take care of the people God puts into your life – and LOVE & CHERISH your country! pic.twitter.com/DnNYxGJm4I
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2017
The Boy Scouts of America currently has 2.4m members and was inspired by British Army officer Robert Baden Powell in the early 1900s with the aim of ‘supporting young people in their physical, mental and spiritual development.’
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