Facebook removed an ad from President Trump’s reelection campaign on Thursday that featured a symbol used by the Nazis to label political prisoners in Adolf Hitler’s concentration camps, saying the inflammatory post violated the platform’s “policy against organized hate.”


The disturbing ad, which was launched Wednesday, calls on users to sign a petition hailing Trump’s “decision to declare ANTIFA a Terrorist Organization” because “dangerous MOBS of far-left groups are running through our streets and causing absolute mayhem.”

Beneath the ad’s text is a picture of a red upside-down triangle.

Schutzstaffel, the legion of German Nazi soldiers who ran the concentration camps during World War II, sewed badges with the exact same symbol onto the sleeves of political prisoners, including socialists, social democrats, communists and anarchists, but also trade unionists, Freemasons and people who tried to rescue Jews.

A Facebook spokesman confirmed the ad was scrubbed from the platform because of the Nazi connection.

“We removed these posts and ads for violating our policy against organized hate,” the spokesman said. “Our policy prohibits using a banned hate group’s symbol to identify political prisoners without the context that condemns or discusses the symbol.”


Before Facebook removed the ad, Trump campaign spokesman Ken Farnaso demurred when asked why the symbol was used.

“The red triangle is an Antifa symbol,” Farnaso claimed in an email to the Daily News along with links to a handful of obscure online retail stores selling water bottles, t-shirts, posters and other gadgets with the triangle on it, along with descriptions calling the symbol “anti-fascist.”

After Facebook took the ad down, Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh piled on without acknowledging the Nazi link.

“The inverted red triangle is a symbol used by Antifa, so it was included in an ad about Antifa,” Murtaugh said. “We would note that Facebook still has an inverted red triangle emoji in use, which looks exactly the same, so it’s curious that they would target only this ad.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, did not buy Murtaugh’s explanation and said the ad is “offensive and deeply troubling,” whether or not the Trump campaign was aware of the triangle’s dark historical significance.

“It is not difficult for one to criticize their political opponent without using Nazi-era imagery,” Greenblatt said. “We implore the Trump campaign to take greater caution and familiarize themselves with the historical context before doing so. Ignorance is not an excuse for appropriating hateful symbols.”

As the controversial ad stoked outrage on social media, Trump posted a tweet that used a phrase commonly associated with the Nazis to attack his Democratic opponents.

“‘BLITZ, Trump Will Smash the Left and Win,' by David Horowitz. Amazon #1 Bestseller,” Trump wrote. “Hot book, great author!”

The Nazi air raids on Great Britain and other allied forces during World War II were widely referred to as “the Blitz.”

Trump and other Republicans have with little evidence blamed Antifa, a loosely-organized movement of left-wing adherents, for the rioting and looting that has erupted during some protests against police brutality across the country. Even though it isn’t an organization and doesn’t have centralized leadership, Trump has also vowed to designate Antifa as a sponsor of terrorism.

Behind the Arc, a progressive Jewish advocacy group, accused Trump’s campaign of using Nazi dogwhistles to fire up his hard-right base by running the Antifa-bashing ad.

“The President of the United States is campaigning for reelection using a Nazi concentration camp symbol,” the group tweeted. “Trump and the RNC are using it to smear millions of protestors. Their masks are off.”