President Trump brought his bombastic politics to a Boy Scouts event Monday in West Virginia, drawing cheers from the children gathered at the event and prompting comparisons between his rousing rhetoric and Nazi Hitler youth rallies from some liberal activists and journalists.
Donald Trump is the first U.S. commander-in-chief to address the group since George W. Bush, and he used his speech to slam the “fake news,” demand loyalty from administration officials and advocate for the overhaul of federal health care. The President spoke in front of 40,000 people at the Boy Scouts of America 2017 National Scout Jamboree.
“As the scout law says, a scout is trustworthy, loyal,” Trump said, before adding, “We could use some more loyalty, I will tell you that.” As he spoke, the crowd chanted “U.S.A” and applauded, prompting some critics of the president, who has the lowest approval ratings in modern history, to compare his rhetoric to the Hitler Youth, a wing of Germany’s Nazi party.
Watch the full speech bellow;
The Boy Scouts of America after the speech came out with a statement that the organization did not endorse Donald Trump or any “position, product, service, political candidate or philosophy.” The group has a tradition of inviting sitting presidents to address its annual gathering. It concluded, “the sitting U.S. president serves as the BSA’s honorary president. It is our longstanding custom to invite the U.S. president to the National Jamboree.”