Former Trump adviser Michael Flynn blamed Jews for boarding trains to Auschwitz — here’s all the offensive comments he’s made about Jews
Flynn, a Christian nationalist who told Trump to suspend the Constitution, has a history of repeating antisemitic tropes
Michael Flynn, former U.S. national security adviser to former President Trump, speaks at a campaign event for U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel on April 21, 2022, at Mapleside Farms in Brunswick, Ohio. Photo by Dustin Franz/Getty Images
By Beth Harpaz, Jacob KornbluhAugust 14, 2023
Former Trump adviser Michael Flynn used a recent speech to blame Jews for their own deportations at the hands of the Nazis, saying Holocaust victims willingly handed their children over and got on trains to Auschwitz.
Flynn suggested complicity on the part of “any mother who would be told, ‘Give me your child, give me your baby, we’re going to separate you, we’re not just going to put you into a club coach car. We’re going to stuff you like a sardine into a train.’”
“There weren’t any guards,” Flynn continued, falsely suggesting that Jews could have simply left or defied Hitler’s soldiers.
“Someone put this Nazi in prison,” responded self-described “anti-disinfo activist” Jim Stewartson, who posted a video clip of Flynn making the comments. The clip, posted Friday on Twitter, the social media platform currently rebranding to X, has been viewed 8 million times.
Describing his trip to Auschwitz, Mike Flynn blames the Jews for being exterminated in WWII because there were “thousands of them and not many guards” and the Jews willingly went along with the Nazis: “OK here’s my child and got on the train.”
— Jim Stewartson, Anti-disinfo activist ????? (@jimstewartson) August 12, 2023
Someone put this Nazi in prison.? pic.twitter.com/GQ9XSeyoEz
In a lengthy rebuttal to Flynn’s comments, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum said on Twitter that “the assertion that Jews could have easily resisted during deportations to extermination simply due to their numerical strength compared to the guards oversimplifies the dire circumstances they faced.”
Flynn made his comments at an event in Michigan billed as “A Celebration of America’s Freedom and Future.” A video of the event was posted four days ago on Rumble, a YouTube alternative popular with right-wingers; Flynn’s Auschwitz rant begins a few minutes after the two-hour mark. The exact date of the event was unclear.
Flynn is a retired U.S. Army general who lasted just 22 days in the White House as a national security adviser to former President Donald Trump. He was pardoned by Trump after pleading guilty to lying about his conversations with Russia’s ambassador. A month before the Jan. 6 uprising, Flynn urged Trump to suspend the Constitution.
Flynn has since been on a speaking tour, themed on Christian nationalism, called “ReAwaken America,” which falsely asserts that Trump won the 2020 election.
Flynn’s Michigan comments weren’t the first time he’s made headlines for Holocaust denial, antisemitism and more. Here are some of Flynn’s other controversial statements about Jews and religion, along with his connections to others who traffic in antisemitism:
February 2016: Flynn tweeted: “Fear of Muslims is rational,” an example of what The New York Times called his “outright Islamophobia.”
July 2016: When Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign manager suggested that Russians were behind the leak of thousands of Democratic National Committee emails, Flynn retweeted an antisemitic message suggesting Jews were blaming Russia to hide their own role in the leak. “‘The USSR is to blame!’ … Not anymore, Jews. Not anymore,” said the tweet. Flynn later said the tweet was a “mistake” and added his “sincerest apologies.”
September 2016: Flynn was quoted by Breitbart News Daily as saying: “We must clearly define the enemies that we are going to face. And in this case, it’s radical Islam.” He accused Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration of being influenced by Muslim organizations “inside of our government.”
December 2016: Four Jewish groups joined 53 organizations calling on Trump to rescind Flynn’s nomination as national security adviser. They cited Flynn’s assertions that “Islam is a political ideology” and “a cancer” that “hides behind being a religion,” along with his false claim that “Shariah law” is spreading in the United States.
October 2021: At a New Hampshire meet-and-greet for then-U.S. Senate candidate Don Bolduc, Flynn blamed Jews for not saving themselves when they arrived at Auschwitz. “Jesus, how could somebody stand there and just allow these people to do that to them?” Flynn said. “And then knowing what they knew, how could they get on that train? I would have rather attacked that machine gun nest.” He suggested that if voters didn’t choose Bolduc, they would hasten their own demise, saying: “We are on that train right now.” Bolduc, a Republican, lost the race.
November 2021: At a ReAwaken America tour stop, Flynn called for Americans to adopt a single religion, saying: “If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God, and one religion under God.” While the notion of making Americans adhere to “one religion” is fundamental to the Christian nationalist movement, it violates a bedrock principle of U.S. democracy and the First Amendment, which guarantees religious freedom.
May 2023: A ReAwaken America event held at Trump’s Miami resort, the Trump National Doral, featured speakers who have expressed admiration for Hitler along with other far-right figures.
August 2023: At a rally in Michigan, Flynn blamed Jews for their own deportations at the hands of the Nazis, suggesting they willingly went to Auschwitz.
A message from our Publisher & CEO 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.
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
