Trump Campaign Runs Ads Depicting Bernie Sanders as the "Puppet-Master" Controlling Biden
On September 15, 2020, the Trump campaign and the RNC began running digital advertisements depicting Bernie Sanders as a puppet master controlling Joe Biden. Forbes reporter Andrew Solender pointed out the advertisements on Twitter, noting that previous ads have depicted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), former President Obama, and Chinese President Xi, as the puppet-masters.
Screengrabs from Solender of the digital advertisements.
Depictions of Sanders, the most famous Jewish politician in the country, as a puppet-master is very much in line with the broader Republican Party’s messaging for the 2020 presidential election, which has previously presented Biden as the “puppet of Bernie [Sanders].”
The "puppet-master” characterization has been used to present Jews as shadowy manipulators, secretly orchestrating events on the political or financial main stage. It is an age-old antisemitic trope — one that has been used in Nazi propaganda and continues to be used to this day.
On the left, a cartoon from Nazi-occupied Serbia in 1941, depicting a Jewish man as a puppet-master controlling both Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. On the right, a cartoon from Ben Garrison in 2017, depicting Jewish philanthropist George Soros as a puppet-master controlling Generals David Patreus and H.R. McMaster. Soros himself is drawn as a marionette controlled by an arm coming out of the shadows. The arm is labeled “Rothschilds,” a reference to a wealthy Jewish family that, even before Soros, was used for decades as an allegory for Jewish power and control. Garrison, the cartoonist who created the 2017 image, was once invited to the Trump White House’s social media summit before public outcry caused the administration to rescind the invitation.
On the left, a closer look at the digital advertisement from the Trump campaign and the RNC. On the top right, a screengrab of an infamous segment from Glenn Beck about George Soros. On the bottom right, an Nazi-era cartoon depicting a stereotypical Jewish man playing “puppet-master” to various international figures.
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action published a video in response breaking down the antisemitism of the ad: