A rumor that circulated online claimed U.S. President Donald Trump made a statement on April 25, 2025, in the hours following the FBI's arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan. Federal agents arrested Dugan for allegedly helping a man named Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer both evade immigration authorities on April 18. She faces charges of "obstructing or impeding a proceeding before a department or agency" and "concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest."
The purported Trump statement read, "I expect the legal profession to understand that the nation is not here for them but they are here for the nation... From now on, I shall intervene in these cases and remove from office those judges who evidently do not understand the demand of the hour."
However, Trump did not make this statement. This matter concerned little more than a prank. A majority of the same users sharing the quote ended their posts and videos by revealing German dictator and Nazi leader Adolf Hitler originated the two sentences, not Trump.
User Chris Mowrey told Snopes he located the old quote in the moments following news of Dugan's arrest, then he posted the quote on X (archived) and shared the passage in a video on Facebook, Instagram, Threads and TikTok. Other users on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, Tumblr and X later shared the same quote, or reposted Mowrey's content either as screenshots or videos.
In Mowrey's X post — which received over 1.8 million views and 34,000 likes — he began with the words, "Trump's statement after arresting Wisconsin judge." After the quote, he continued, "I lied, that was Hitler in 1942. But the fact that you liked the statement is pretty damning."
(@chrisdmowrey/X)
Below we detail in-depth historical information about the context surrounding Hitler's quote, as well as more details about Trump and his administration's genuine statements regarding Dugan's arrest.
Researching the Hitler quote
Mowrey told Snopes he located the Hitler quote from an April 1942 speech transcript hosted on the Jewish Virtual Library website. Harvard Law School's Nuremberg Trials Project website also hosts an image of a document (archived) dated April 27, 1942, attributing the quote to a Hitler speech from the day before. For context, Hitler delivered the speech in front of the Reichstag months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, right around the middle of World War II.
The pertinent section of the document includes Hitler's remarks about the German people requesting leave during the war. He provides an example of a case where a judge purportedly sentenced a criminal to jail time instead of to fight in the war. Hitler then asserts he sought to gain the authority to remove judges who, in their rulings, would "not understand the demand of the hour."
Referencing the Nuremberg Trials Project website, Snopes (below) has bolded the two sentences in the passage that later appeared in the social media posts, which do not appear continuously. Mowrey also removed the word "German" from "German legal profession" (or "German jurisprudence" in the translation from Jewish Virtual Library). The document features a credit to a translator for converting Hitler's speech from German to English in 1947:
If there is anybody who is entitled to ask for leave, it would be first of all only our front soldiers and secondly the men and women workers who supply the front.
For months I have been unable to grant leave to the Eastern front, and nobody at home, whatever his office, should dare therefore to insist on his so-called "established right" to leave. I myself am justified to refuse because since 1933 I have not taken three days' leave — a fact which is probably not known to these individuals.
(page 2 of original)
Furthermore, I expect the German legal profession to understand that the nation is not here for them but that they are here for the nation, that is, the world, which includes Germany, must not decline in order that formal law may live, but Germany must live, irrespective of the contradictions of formal justice. To quote one example, I fail to understand why a criminal who married in 1937, ill treated his wife until she became insane and finally died as a result of the last set of ill treatment, should be sentenced to five years in a penitentiary at a moment when tens of thousands of honourable German men must die to save the homeland from annihilation at the hands of Bolshevism, that is to protect their wives and children.
(page 2 of original, cont'd)
From now on, I shall intervene in these cases and remove from office those judges who evidently do not understand the demand of the hour.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum published that, following Hitler's speech, a resolution formally recognized his right to remove judges at will, and said later the same year that the appointments of two radical Nazis "heralded the end of an independent judiciary in Nazi Germany."
A Reddit user writing on the r/AskHistorians subreddit provided a researched analysis of the Hitler quote, including information from further sources.
Trump's actual statements following Dugan's arrest
Regarding Dugan's case, The Associated Press (AP) reported further details, including that her attorney, Craig Mastantuono, said during a court hearing following her arrest, "Judge Dugan wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest. It was not made in the interest of public safety."
While aboard Air Force One on April 26, Trump told reporters, without mentioning Dugan by name, in part, "You know, we have hundreds of thousands of people that we want to get out of the country and the courts are holding us back. Some judge that nobody ever heard of is holding us back. It's very dangerous for our country." On the same day, he also posted (archived) on his Truth Social platform, in part, "We need Courageous JUSTICE in our Country."
Attorney General Pam Bondi, appearing on Fox News on the day of Dugan's arrest, also said, "What has happened to our judiciary is beyond me." She later continued, "They're deranged, is all I can think of. I cannot believe, I think some of these judges are beyond and above the law, and they are not. And we're sending a very strong message today. If you are harboring a fugitive, we don't care who you are. If you are helping hide one, if you are giving a TDA member guns, anyone who is illegally in this country, we will come after you and we will prosecute you. We will find you."
Bondi's mention of "TDA," short for the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, referenced the U.S. Department of Justice's April 24 arrests in New Mexico of former Doña Ana County Magistrate Judge Jose Luis "Joel" Cano and his wife, Nancy, on evidence-tampering offenses. The Justice Department claimed a man with "alleged ties" to Tren de Aragua resided at a property owned by the Canos. The AP reported further details of the case.
For further reading, a previous fact-check article confirmed tech billionaire Elon Musk, while serving as an adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, reposted a post that said, "Stalin, Mao and Hitler didn't murder millions of people. Their public sector workers did." He later removed the repost.