North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum confirmed that former President Donald Trump likened President Biden’s administration to the Nazi Gestapo during a donor retreat Saturday, but downplayed its significance.
“This was a short comment deep into the thing that wasn’t really central to what he was talking about,” Burgum, 67, told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I think … a majority of Americans feel like the trial that he’s in right now is politically motivated.”
The Gestapo was an infamously brutal secret police force in Nazi Germany that ruthlessly targeted Jews and critics of Adolf Hitler.
“These people are running a Gestapo administration,” Trump said during the closed-door retreat, NBC News reported. “And it’s the only thing they have. And it’s the only way they’re going to win in their opinion.”
Biden-Harris 2024 spokesperson James Singer quickly condemned Trump.
“Trump is once again making despicable and insulting comments about the Holocaust, while in the same breath attacking law enforcement, celebrating political violence, and threatening our democracy,” he said in a statement.
Burgum, 67, whose name has swirled as a possible vice presidential contender, said it would be a “travesty of justice” if Trump, 77, wound up convicted in his ongoing Manhattan trial over alleged falsification of documents, chalking it up to a “business filing error.”
The former president is facing a 34-count indictment in a case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office is alleging Trump falsified documents to hide hush money payments doled out to quash negative stories about him during the 2016 election.
“It’s not illegal to pay people for nondisclosure agreements,” he added.
“The outcome of this trial is not going to change a lot of people’s minds. It might actually in some ways help President Trump because it reinforces the idea that the Biden administration is willing to use lawfare to try to attack a political opponent.”
Burgum unsuccessfully vied for the 2024 GOP nod before dropping out late last year.
During the Republican National Committee spring retreat in Palm Beach on Saturday, Trump huddled with many top Republicans who have sparked buzz in the veepstakes. The event was widely seen as a test of possible contenders.
When asked about serving as Trump’s VP, Burgum kept the door open but sought to tamp down expectations.
“Maybe there’s a list of 50. If I’m on it, who would know? But it’s not why I’m out supporting the president right now,” he said.
Burgum also affirmed that Biden, 81, won the 2020 election, but caveated that he believed there were “irregularities.”
“I believe that Joe Biden won the 2020 election, but I also believe … because of COVID, there was a huge number of irregularities, because we changed a bunch of rules in certain places, in certain precincts, in certain states,” he said.
Trump has long peddled dubious claims about the 2020 election being “stolen” and “rigged” against him, but there is no evidence that massive voter fraud deprived him of victory.
But Burgum alluded to grievances with how some states such as Pennsylvania changed their election procedures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m looking forward to next January when Vice President Harris certifies the election for Donald Trump,” he added.