You’ve probably heard of the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi officials in 1945-46, but you may not be familiar with the Nuremberg Laws. Enacted by the German party in 1935, these Laws reclassified German Jews as “Jews in Germany,” establishing “Reich Citizenship” as a legal framework and enabling the Holocaust. This week, TikTok users are among those speaking out, citing the dangerous parallels between Trump‘s policies and the Nuremberg Laws. Here’s why some think 2025 in the U.S. might look like the Germany of 90 years ago.
Reich Citizenship and U.S. Law Under Donald Trump
A U.S. military veteran was among those detained without a warrant during a recent ICE raid in Newark, N.J. If anything, it proves that neither citizenship nor military service are enough to avoid harassment and persecution in Trump’s America. Trump’s second term began with a flurry of Executive Orders and Executive Actions targeting immigration, birthright citizenship, and trans identities. As some historians and human rights experts have pointed out, legalizing discrimination against marginalized communities was also the Nazis’ strategy.
Those without German blood and loyalty to the Nazi party weren’t eligible for “Reich Citizenship” under the Nuremberg Laws. That framework separated citizens into persecutors and persecuted. That, in turn, made it possible to disenfranchise, detain, and kill Jewish people and others the Nazis deemed enemies. Many horrors of the Holocaust were perfectly legal in Germany at the time, a warning raised by many on social media.
“Deported” Is Already a Euphemism
A TikTok video by @yersocialistdad dug into the issue, highlighting a terrifying prospect that Americans now face. “You have many rights,” the creator said. “But the fundamental right you have is that citizenship of yours, if you have it. But it is just essentially a piece of paper.” The video’s caption (“they will take it if they can“), summarizes a concern many seem to share: under Trump, U.S. law will increasingly become a weapon of indefinite detention. One commenter gave a bleak summary, saying,
So “deported” is already a euphemism for “put in the _____camps”…
While it may be tempting to dismiss such concerns, there’s reason to take them seriously. Under the 13th Amendment, slavery is already legal in the U.S. for those imprisoned. As the Laken Riley Act and other bills expand ICE’s ability to detain and deport people, the threat of indiscriminate and endless detention looms larger. Trump’s attempts wouldn’t even be the first. During WWII, the U.S. government sent 120,000 people of Japanese descent (including 70,000 U.S. citizens) to detention camps. If the U.S. remains on its current political trajectory, the nightmare of Trumpian Citizenship may need to be faced.
