Jonathan Turley, the Law Professor Who Called for Clinton's Impeachment but Defended Trump, Finds a Tattoo in Maine and Declares Moral Equivalence
The Hill Opinion Desk: Where 'Both Sides' Is Less a Framework and More a Lifestyle Brand
Jonathan Turley wrote a piece in The Hill asking if Democrats are “the baddies” because Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner once had a Nazi-linked tattoo on his chest (Turley, 2026). Turley argues that Democrats see Nazis everywhere but somehow missed the Democrat with a hate symbol tattoo. He provides a lot of stories and outrage, but he leaves out the part where actual Nazi salutes and actual SS-style uniforms have been showing up in the Trump administration and its allies. That is not an argument. It is a false dichotomy designed to exhaust you.
The “Are We the Baddies?” Routine Needs Better Material
Turley wants you to believe that Platner’s tattoo proves Democrats have no standing to call out fascist imagery. That is called a false dichotomy. It pretends you can either condemn Platner or condemn Nazi salutes, but not both. Most Democrats did both. Jordan Wood, another Democratic candidate in Maine, publicly said Platner should drop out because Democrats need moral clarity (Kruesi & Whittle, 2025). Senator John Fetterman scoffed at Platner and said he was not even a real Democrat (Sullivan, 2026). When Chuck Schumer dodged questions about Platner, that was political cowardice, not a party platform. Turley cherry-picks the weakest responses, ignores the widespread criticism from Democrats, and pretends one candidate’s tattoo cancels out an entire pattern of behavior from powerful officials. A law professor should know that anecdotes are not antidotes.
We Watched the Salutes in Real Time
While Turley was fixated on a tattoo in Maine, the rest of us watched Elon Musk slap his hand to his chest and shoot his right arm upward in a stiff diagonal at President Trump’s inauguration in January 2025. He did it twice. German newspaper Die Zeit cut through the excuses: “A Hitler salute is a Hitler salute is a Hitler salute” (Bennhold, 2025). The New York Times traced the gesture’s actual history and found it was invented by twentieth century fascists, not ancient Romans. There is zero evidence Romans ever saluted that way. Musk’s own representative in Italy initially bragged online that “The Roman Empire is back, starting from the Roman salute,” before deleting the post. Then Musk made jokes using Nazi names on social media (NPR, 2025). This is not a drunken mistake from 2007. This is video footage of one of the president’s closest allies giving a salute that German observers identified immediately. Turley wants to argue about tattoos. The rest of us are looking at the tape.
We Watched the Costumes, Too
It was not just a billionaire at a rally. Senior immigration enforcement officials decided to dress the part as well. Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol chief Trump made “commander at large” for immigration crackdowns, wore a brass-buttoned, calf-length olive coat that German media compared to a Nazi officer aesthetic (Cole, 2026). Der Spiegel writer Arno Frank noted that Bovino stood out from other agents “just as an elegant SS officer stands out from the rowdy SA mob.” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told reporters the coat was standard issue, but The New York Times checked the Border Patrol uniform manual and found the coat was not listed as official gear (Miroff, 2026). Gavin Newsom posted that if you think the calls of fascism are hyperbole, watch the video of Bovino in his coat. Meanwhile, ICE recruitment materials have used slogans lifted from white nationalist literature and neo-Nazi propaganda, including imagery that mirrors 1930s mobilization art (Walters, 2026). This is not about one guy with an old tattoo. This is about the federal government using the visual grammar of fascism to recruit enforcers.
Scale and Context Still Matter
Turley is not stupid. He understands that a drunken mistake from 2007 is different from a governing aesthetic in 2026. Platner covered his tattoo and apologized. He did not give a speech calling for the restoration of a mythic homeland while agents killed American citizens. Yet Turley asks us to believe that Platner’s tattoo is the real scandal, while Musk’s salute and Bovino’s coat are distractions manufactured by the left. That is the opposite of accountability. It is a rhetorical trick designed to make you tired of calling out extremism by flooding the zone with whataboutism.
If Turley wants to argue that Democrats are hypocrites about believing women, he has material to work with. He wrote elsewhere about Democratic leaders who backed away from Me Too principles to protect Platner’s Senate chances (Turley, 2026). That is a real conversation worth having. But when he pretends that one Democrat’s tattoo cancels out actual Nazi salutes, actual SS-style coats, and actual recruitment posters built on white nationalist slogans, he is no longer making an argument. He is selling a distraction.
The Receipts Do Not Lie
The evidence here is simple and public. Platner had a bad tattoo and covered it. Musk gave a salute that multiple international observers identified as Nazi-adjacent. Bovino wore a coat that German media compared to fascist aesthetic while leading immigration raids, and the uniform manual does not back up his department’s excuses. ICE recruitment materials have flirted with neo-Nazi iconography. These are not anecdotes. These are documented events with video, photographs, and official documents. Turley’s piece is the anecdote. It is the desperate attempt to find one Democrat with a tattoo so nobody has to talk about the salutes and uniforms on the other side. I am not buying it, and neither should you.
If you want to see what happens when a constitutional scholar builds an entire column out of one tattoo so he never has to mention federal agents in SS cosplay, the original disappearing act is here: https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/5922240-platner-nazi-tattoo-controversy/
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Works Cited
Bennhold, K. (2025, January 24). What Elon Musk’s salute was all about. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/world/europe/elon-musk-roman-salute-nazi.html
Cole, D. (2026, January 23). German media likens US border patrol official’s coat to ‘Nazi look’. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/23/gregory-bovino-coat-german-media
Kruesi, K., & Whittle, P. (2025, October 22). Maine Senate candidate Platner says tattoo recognized as Nazi symbol has been covered. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/maine-platner-senate-trump-mills-tattoo-collins-fa8328a3c8aa5d5e0f34adb379e977b8
Miroff, N. (2026, January 26). Greg Bovino loses his job. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/01/greg-bovino-demoted-minneapolis-border-patrol/685770/
NPR. (2025, January 23). Elon Musk turns Inauguration Day salute into Nazi-themed jokes. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2025/01/23/nx-s1-5269719/elon-musk-salute-inauguration-day-nazis
Sullivan, K. (2026, June 12). Fetterman scoffs at Platner: ‘He’s not even a Democrat’. The Hill. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5922841-john-fetterman-graham-platner-democratic-party-maine-senate-race/
Turley, J. (2026, June 8). On the Kavanaugh anniversary, Democratic leaders swap Me Too for Maine. Jonathan Turley. https://jonathanturley.org/2026/06/08/on-the-kavanaugh-anniversary-democratic-leaders-swap-me-too-for-maine/
Turley, J. (2026, June 13). Post-Platner Democrats must ask: ‘Are we the baddies?’ The Hill. https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/5922240-platner-nazi-tattoo-controversy/
Walters, G. (2026, January 27). From slogans to uniforms – the Nazification of ICE shouldn’t be underestimated. The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/america-ice-fascism-bovino-b2907803.html