Former NFL kicker Chris Kluwe has launched another incendiary political broadside, directly comparing Donald Trump and his supporters to 'Nazis' for a second time in less than a year. The ex-Minnesota Vikings player turned political candidate made the inflammatory remarks following the passage of a contentious bill in the US House of Representatives.
From the Council Chamber to Social Media
Kluwe's latest outburst comes just ten months after a dramatic incident that saw him arrested and removed from a council meeting in Huntington Beach, California. In February, he was detained for civil disobedience following an anti-MAGA tirade where he labelled the movement "explicitly a Nazi" entity. The immediate consequence was his dismissal from his position as a football coach at Edison High School, a role he had held since 2019.
Undeterred, the outspoken Democrat candidate for the California state assembly has now doubled down on his provocative rhetoric. The trigger was Wednesday's passage of the Protect Children's Innocence Act, which seeks to criminalise certain gender-affirming medical treatments for minors.
The Bill and the Backlash
The proposed legislation would classify providing surgeries and puberty blockers to minors as a class C felony. Medical professionals who administer such treatments could face prison sentences of up to ten years. In a furious post on the social media platform BlueSky, Kluwe did not mince his words.
"F*** every single one of these a**holes," he wrote. "Once again, this is literally what the Nazis did." In a subsequent statement to Fox News, he expanded on his comparison, arguing that criminalising the transgender community was "literally step one from the Nazi playbook." He further criticised Republican priorities, stating they should focus on gun control and universal healthcare if they genuinely wanted to protect children.
However, Fox News has countered Kluwe's historical analogy, noting there are no records of the Nazi regime jailing doctors for performing sex-change operations on children. While a prominent German transgender specialist, Magnus Hirschfeld, was forced into exile in 1933, his documented procedures were conducted on adults.
A Pattern of Provocative Commentary
This is not an isolated incident for Kluwe. Back in September, he sparked further debate by commenting on the assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk. He reposted an interview with Senator Elizabeth Warren, who dismissed the idea that Democratic rhetoric was responsible. Kluwe agreed, writing, "The GOP is *choosing* to create this kind of societal environment."
He also responded to a clip of Donald Trump discussing political radicals, asserting, "The man is a Nazi, and every media organization worth the name should be calling him one." This consistent pattern of employing extreme historical comparisons continues to fuel controversy around the former athlete's political activism.
The fallout from his February arrest and firing has clearly not tempered his approach. As he pursues a seat in the California state assembly, his strategy of using stark, confrontational language ensures he remains a polarising figure at the intersection of sports and highly-charged cultural politics.
