Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump holds a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Oct. 27, 2024. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

(JTA) — Speaking at a campaign rally in Georgia on Monday night, Donald Trump said the Kamala Harris campaign was painting him and his supporters as Nazis, a charge he rejected forcefully.

“I’m not a Nazi. I’m the opposite of a Nazi,” Trump said to cheers.

The comments, which come a week before Election Day, represent an unusual statement by a presidential candidate. They also represent the latest fallout since Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, last week said in on-the-record interviews that Trump had expressed admiration for Hitler’s generals and “falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.”

Democrats have seized on the allegations, repeating them in campaign ads and appearances and projecting “Trump Praised Hitler” on the outer walls of Madison Square Garden in New York City on Sunday night as Trump held a rally there. That rally, which has been widely criticized, including by Republicans, for featuring hateful and crude comments, also drew comparisons to a rally held at the same location by pro-Nazi Americans in 1939. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, urged Americans, “Don’t think that he doesn’t know for one second exactly what they’re doing there.”

The Trump campaign has rejected the allegations and emphasized Trump’s pro-Israel record, a major part of its message to American Jews. It also released an ad last week featuring a Holocaust survivor who said Harris should apologize to his murdered family members for calling Trump a fascist.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount