Arnold Schwarzenegger compares Capitol siege to Nazi violence, tells Donald Trump: ‘You’re terminated’
- The Austrian-born politician likened Wednesday’s events to attacks on Jews during Kristallnacht, calling it America’s ‘Night of Broken Glass’
- The former actor was born after the events of 1938, but said the trauma from the collapse of democracy had shaped his childhood
02:30
Schwarzenegger compares US Capitol siege to Nazi violence, calls Trump ‘worst president ever’
Arnold Schwarzenegger likened the siege of the US Capitol to Nazi attacks on Jews in Europe ahead of World War II, in a scathing video in which the former California governor also called President Donald Trump “the worst president ever”.
In a separate interview, the former actor also offered his trademark parting message to Trump: “You are terminated, Mr President,” Schwarzenegger told a German newspaper.
Schwarzenegger was not yet alive when Nazis rampaged through Germany and Austria during Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, in 1938, attacking Jewish homes and businesses and taking thousands to concentration camps. He was born in Austria two years after World War II ended.
But the trauma inflicted by the violent collapse of democracy – and the complicity of some of those close to him – shaped his childhood, he said in the video released via Twitter on Sunday.
“Growing up, I was surrounded by broken men drinking away their guilt over their participation in the most evil regime in history,” he said. “Not all of them were rabid anti-Semites or Nazis. Many just went along step by step down the road.”