Former CNN correspondent Jim Acosta says two senior diplomats recently told him they see echoes of 1930s Germany in Donald Trump’s second administration.
Acosta, 55, made the claim during a Saturday livestream in which he and economist Justin Wolfers had been discussing the United States’ intensifying trade dispute with Canada.
After Wolfers left the broadcast, Acosta continued speaking on his own and shifted into a broader reflection on America’s relationships with its allies.
“Some of the loveliest people you could meet are outside of the borders of the United States, and are living in places, um, and in countries that we consider to be close friends of the United States, close friends of America,” he said.
Acosta then introduced the anecdote, saying the exchange took place at “a diplomatic function.”
‘I had an ambassador to one of our allies, in Europe, come up to me and say, “What’s happening right now, Jim, reminds me of Germany in the 1930s,”‘ he said.
An ambassador who represents ‘another US ally’ and was also present nodded in agreement, Acosta claimed.
‘Yep. Yep,’ he credited that person as saying.
Former CNN star Jim Acosta has revealed that two high-ranking US diplomats recently complained to him that Donald Trump’s seconds presidency reminds them of ‘Germany in the 1930s.’ He did not name the ambassadors
Acosta offered the anecdote during a discussion about the US’s ongoing trade war with Canada. Acosta left CNN last year after Trump was reelected
‘They were both saying the same thing – and you know, it is funny to see the memes talking about getting made fun of. You know – [President Trump] stepping on a rake and acting like a fool on the world’s stage.
‘But it is having real-world consequences.’
Acosta left CNN last year after a lineup shuffle that would have seen his morning show moved to midnight. He said he would refuse ‘to bow down to a tyrant’ on-air, at the time. Trump was sworn into office days earlier.
‘It is having lasting consequences on our relationships with our friends around the world,’ he continued on Saturday, speaking on his web program, The Jim Acosta Show.
He brought up how Canada is one of the US’s closest allies, and how America’s neighbor to the north ‘were with us shoulder to shoulder after 9/11.’
‘They’ve been with us shoulder to shoulder on D-Day, on – in so many other cases, when America’s back was against the wall, when the fate of the world was on the line,’ the journalist-turned-political commentator continued.
‘Canadians have been there for the United States, the Canadians have been there for humanity, for democracy. For freedom, around the world.’
Acosta went on to play a clip of Trump signing an executive order to change Lake Ontario’s name to ‘Lake America.’
President Trump signed an executive order changing Lake Ontario’s name to Lake America at the White House on Thursday, after trade talks between the US and Canada collapsed last week
‘Siri show me a sellout,’ Acosta wrote in a subsequent X post that noted how Google already recognized the name change.
Trump told reporters while signing the executive order in the Oval Office: ‘Lake of America was something I’ve been thinking about for a long time.’
A map emblazoned with the tagline ‘Making the Great Lakes Even Greater’ was propped up behind him.
The move came after trade talks between the two countries collapsed this week, and as Trump enacted 50 percent tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods. Canada responded with similar tariffs on some US products.
Trump already renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America last year.
‘Now all we need is an ocean,’ he joked Thursday.