‘It’s like Hitler Youth’: Trump attacked over plans for ‘patriotic education’

Critics compare president’s ‘pro-America’ education commission to Nazi youth organisation

Donald Trump has been ridiculed over plans for a “patriotic education” commission for American schools, with critics comparing the proposals to Nazi Germany’s Hitler Youth programme.

Speaking at what was dubbed the White House Conference on American History, the US president said children had undergone “decades of leftwing indoctrination”, as he set out plans for a “patriotic education” programme.

"We're launching a new pro-American lesson plan for students called [the] 1776 Commission,” he told an audience. “We're going to teach our children the truth about America."

Twitter users soon mocked the president, with one person comparing his speech at the National Archives to “straight up Nazi rhetoric”.

Others panned the proposals as being on par with the Hitler Youth, as the Nazi youth organisation’s name trended on Twitter on Friday.

“Since people are (correctly) equating Trump’s new executive order with Hitler’s Youth, here is an interesting factoid,” wrote American author and film producer, Tariq Nasheed. “Hitler’s Youth was actually inspired by the Boy Scouts...Because the Boy Scouts was founded by white supremacist Robert Baden-Powell”.

The president, announcing the creation of a “1776 Commission” to promote “patriotic” and “pro-America” education, had also criticised The New York Times’ 1619 Project, an initiative educating children on the arrival of the first slave ship to North America.  

"There is no more powerful force than a parent's love for their children,” said Mr Trump. “And patriotic mums and dads are going to demand that their children are no longer fed hateful lies about this country".

The 1619 project’s mission statement says it will educate Americans about slavery and the contributions of black Americans to national life, which Mr Trump called “warped”.