A Sitting President Tweeted a Nazi Salute at a Newspaper Column. Then the ADL Answered.

On Sunday, June 7, 2026, the president of a NATO-partner democracy of 52 million people posted two words on X: “Heil, Hitler.” The author was President Gustavo Petro (left, Historic Pact) of Colombia, and the target was not a fascist movement or a foreign dictator. It was an op-ed in the Bogotá newspaper El Espectadorthat had endorsed his political rival in this month’s presidential runoff.

The column urged Colombians to choose “order, authority, and economic freedom” and backed Abelardo de la Espriella (right)— a Trump-admiring, Milei-styled lawyer who pledged to reopen ties with Israel and move Colombia’s embassy to Jerusalem. Petro’s reply equated that endorsement with Nazism. The post drew more than 20 million views and 77,000 likes in under a day.

Within hours, the Anti-Defamation League, the Israeli foreign ministry, and Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations all condemned it. The runoff is June 21. Petro — a man already sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury, who broke relations with Israel and has spent two years comparing Donald Trump to Hitler — had reached for the most radioactive slogan in modern politics to attack a newspaper for endorsing the other side.

• 20M+ views — the “Heil, Hitler” post drew on X in under a day, with more than 77,000 likes, before international condemnation began · Source: Newsweek / JNS
• 43.7% vs 40.9% — first-round split on May 31, 2026 — de la Espriella (right) led Iván Cepeda (Petro’s left coalition), forcing the June 21 runoff · Source: 2026 Colombian presidential election results
• June 21, 2026 — the presidential runoff — two weeks after a sitting president posted a Nazi slogan against the column endorsing his opponent · Source: TIME / CNN

The mechanics are simple and undisputed. On Sunday, June 7, Petro quote-posted a link to an El Espectadoropinion column and added only the words “Heil, Hitler.” There was no follow-on thread softening it, no immediate claim of satire from the president himself. The two words stood alone, attached to a piece of journalism, on the verified personal account of a head of state.

The reaction split predictably along the lines of Colombia’s runoff. Critics called it antisemitic and reckless — a president invoking the Holocaust to smear a newspaper. Supporters insisted it was sarcasm, that Petro meant to brand the column’s “order and authority” framing as fascist. Either reading lands in the same place: the elected leader of Colombia chose a Nazi salute as his political argument, two weeks before an election.

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The op-ed that set Petro off carried its own twist. Columnist Felipe Zuleta Llerasdisclosed that he had co-written the piece with Google’s Gemini AI — building it from a single prompt and then endorsing every word of the output. The column denounced Iván Cepeda, the candidate of Petro’s governing coalition, and argued that Colombia “does not need more rhetoric; it needs order, authority, and economic freedom.” Its conclusion: Abelardo de la Espriella was the country’s best alternative.

So the sequence is worth stating plainly. A columnist used an AI model to help write an endorsement of the right-wing candidate. The sitting president read that endorsement and replied with the slogan of the Third Reich. The novelty of the AI-assisted column became a footnote; the president’s response became the story, dragging a routine newspaper endorsement onto the front pages of the international press.

“Colombia does not need more rhetoric; it needs order, authority, and economic freedom.”

El Espectador column by Felipe Zuleta Lleras, co-written with Gemini AI · the post Petro answered with a Nazi salute

The response from Jewish organizations and Israel was swift and without qualification. The Anti-Defamation League posted: “The president of Colombia posted, ‘Heil Hitler.’ In 2026.” It went on: “An elected head of state shouldn’t have to be told why posting a Nazi slogan is monstrous and unacceptable. There is no excuse for it and no context that justifies it.”

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, wrote that “there are lines that aren’t crossed” and that “using Nazi slogans is a low that there’s no coming back from.” Israel’s foreign ministry called the post “a total loss of moral compass and an indelible stain on Colombia’s legacy.” The condemnation was notable for what it lacked: any partisan hedging. This was not a contested interpretation of a dog whistle. It was the slogan itself.

“There are lines that aren't crossed. Using Nazi slogans is a low that there's no coming back from.”

Danny Danon · Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations · June 7, 2026

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The post did not come from nowhere. Petro, a former member of the M-19 guerrilla movement and Colombia’s first leftist president, has built a record of Hitler comparisons and anti-Israel rhetoric that the “Heil Hitler” tweet only punctuated. In September 2025, he stood at the United Nations General Assembly and repeatedly likened Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. He has called the right-wing Chilean politician José Antonio Kast a “son of Hitler,” prompting a formal protest from Chile, and Germany has publicly objected to his earlier Hitler invocations.

On Israel, the trajectory is unmistakable. In May 2024 Petro broke diplomatic relations with Israel, accusing it of genocide in Gaza. In January 2025 he claimed “Zionism was supported by international financial capital” — language critics said echoed classic antisemitic tropes. In September 2025 Colombia expelled Israeli diplomats after Israel intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla. The “Heil Hitler” post is the endpoint of that arc, not a departure from it.

The post lands in the final stretch of a knife-edge election. In the May 31 first round, de la Espriella took 43.7% and Cepeda 40.9%, with no candidate clearing 50% — sending the two to a June 21 runoff that could redefine Colombia’s relationship with both Washington and Jerusalem. De la Espriella, a 47-year-old lawyer nicknamed “The Tiger,” has modeled himself on Trump and Argentina’s Javier Milei and has pledged to reopen an embassy in Jerusalem and restore strategic ties with Israel.

Cepeda, 63, is a longtime leftist senator and human-rights advocate running to continue Petro’s agenda, including the “total peace” strategy. Whether Petro’s outburst helps or hurts his own coalition’s candidate is the open question: it energized his base but handed his opponents a clean line — that the incumbent left answers a newspaper endorsement with the slogan of the Holocaust.

Strip away the spin and the facts are not in dispute. A sitting president posted a Nazi salute on his verified account, aimed at a newspaper column endorsing his opponent. The ADL, the Israeli foreign ministry, and Israel’s UN ambassador condemned it. It happened two weeks before a runoff that will decide whether Colombia tilts back toward Washington and Israel or stays on Petro’s path. And it came from a leader the United States has already sanctioned and who has spent two years branding his rivals — up to and including the U.S. president — as Hitler.

There is a version of this story that treats “Heil, Hitler” as a clumsy joke. The ADL rejected that version in advance: “no context that justifies it.” When a head of state reaches for the language of genocide to win a domestic argument, the gravity does not depend on whether he meant it. It depends on the office he holds when he says it.

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Last updated June 8, 2026