Donald Trump: "Are we living in Nazi Germany?"

Impact

Donald Trump curiously compared the leaking of documents that claim Russia has compromising material on the president-elect to "living in Nazi Germany" in a Wednesday morning tweet storm.

"Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to 'leak' into the public," Trump tweeted. "One last shot at me. Are we living in Nazi Germany?"

It's unclear why Trump would call the leak of damaging information to Nazi Germany, especially given his campaign's flirtation with the alt-right — a group made up, in part, of Neo-Nazis.

Many took Trump to task for the comparison to the oppressive regime that murdered millions of Jews, LGBTQ people and political opponents.

The Anti Defamation League, a group that fights against anti-Semitism, chastised Trump for bringing up Nazi Germany.

"No one should cavalierly draw analogies to Nazi Germany, especially the next leader of the free world," ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. "It is not only a ridiculous comparison on the merits, but it also coarsens our discourse and diminishes the horror of the Holocaust. The President-elect should apologize for the remark."

Others pointed out that the Nazi regime did far worse to political adversaries than leak unfavorable intelligence.

Trump's comparison makes little sense, many noted, comparing it to Godwin's Law, a satirical theory that states, "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."