WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump accused Democratic rival President Joe Biden of running a “Gestapo administration”, in a private address to donors in which he also attacked prosecutors involved in his criminal indictments, according to a recording heard by American media outlets.

Trump, whose own rhetoric has drawn accusations of fascist tendencies from civil rights groups and other critics, made the comparison with the Nazi police in Germany’s World War II regime at a donor retreat on the night of May 4 at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

The comments came after Trump reprised his complaint that the multiple indictments against him were politically motivated. He had just concluded 11 days of a New York hush money trial in which he is charged with falsifying business records to cover up a US$130,000 (S$176,000) payment made to a porn star.

“These people are running a Gestapo administration,” Trump said, according to an audio recording heard by The New York Times and The Washington Post. “And it’s the only thing they have. And it’s the only way they’re going to win, in their opinion, and it’s actually killing them. But it doesn’t bother me.”

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the reported remarks.

In a statement, White House spokesman Andrew Bates sought to contrast Mr Biden’s conduct in office with Trump’s latest remark, accusing the former president of echoing fascist rhetoric, “lunching with neo-Nazis and fanning debunked conspiracy theories that have cost brave police officers their lives”.

“President Biden is bringing the American people together around our shared democratic values and the rule of law – an approach that has delivered the biggest violent crime reduction in 50 years,” said Mr Bates.

Trump, who held office from 2017 to 2021, faces an array of legal troubles in criminal and civil cases while he seeks to regain the presidency in the Nov 5 election. He denies wrongdoing in all the cases.

He has made a series of inflammatory and racist statements on the campaign trail, using violent imagery to lambast immigrants and opponents. He has warned of violence if he does not win the 2024 election and has compared immigrants to animals.

In November, Mr Biden attacked Trump for using the word “vermin” to refer to his political enemies, saying it echoed the language of Nazi Germany. Also in 2023, Trump said immigrants who entered the US illegally were “poisoning the blood of our country”.

Some historians say such comments mirror that of autocrats who have sought to dehumanise their foes. The Trump campaign has previously rejected comparisons to Nazis, Adolf Hitler and Italy’s Benito Mussolini.

The Biden campaign said the reported comments underscored the Republican candidate’s anger and desire for revenge.

Spokesman James Singer said in a statement: “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.”

On the night of May 4, Mr Trump used expletives to refer to US Special Counsel Jack Smith, according to the reports, and mocked Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis, who is prosecuting a state election interference case.

Mr Smith, a frequent Trump target, is the prosecutor handling the federal cases involving efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss to Mr Biden and the former president’s handling of classified government material.

Trump, a former New York businessman and reality television host, described Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug smugglers as he declared his candidacy for the Republican nomination in the 2016 election.

He drew widespread criticism after a violent 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, for equating white supremacists with counter-protesters and saying “both sides” were to blame.

Mr Biden has said the events in Charlottesville, where one woman was killed, motivated him to run for president against Mr Trump in 2020. REUTERS