ANALYSIS: Spicer's Hitler gaffe complicates Trump push on Russia

— -- The Trump administration’s diplomatic dance around Russia and Syria was complicated enough before the Nazis entered the picture.

In a startling about-face, the White House went from resisting intervention in Syria to pressuring the Russians to condemn the Assad regime -– all inside a week that saw President Trump order the first major military strike of his presidency.

That would mean trying to influence the same Russian government that Trump has come under fierce criticism for defending and seeking a closer relationship with. Trump’s secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, is in Moscow Wednesday in part with the hope of convincing Vladimir Putin to drop his support of Assad –- even as fresh allegations emerge of Trump associates’ contacts with the Russian government during the campaign.

In the midst of that, White House press secretary Sean Spicer dumped an offensive and inarticulate comparison into the equation.

“You had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons,” Spicer said Tuesday. “You have to, if you are Russia, ask yourself: Is this a country and a regime that you want to align yourself with?”

Except that’s not the question Russia has to ask itself, not immediately, not now. That’s because Spicer’s comment was, at best, stunning in its historical inaccuracy, since it seems to ignore the millions of Jews killed -– including German citizens gassed in concentration camps -– during the Holocaust.

Spicer spent much of the rest of the day apologizing for his remark -– including, at one point, a mention of what happened in “Holocaust centers,” an apparent reference to concentration camps. The comments brought swift denunciations from Holocaust remembrance organizations and even Israeli officials.

It didn’t help that the comments came during the Jewish holiday of Passover, which celebrates freedom from bondage in Egypt. The Trump administration also came under previous fire for a Holocaust remembrance statement that did not directly mention Jews, as well as the perception of slow action in condemning anti-Semitic vandalism and threats.

As for how it’s likely to be perceived by the intended target, the Russians need no lectures on Nazi atrocities. Millions of Soviet soldiers and civilians died in World War II, where the USSR, of course, aligned with the USA to defeat Hitler’s Germany.

There’s another irony in the American case to Russia. The Trump administration is asking Putin -– and the world community –- to trust the judgment of U.S. intelligence agencies when it comes to Assad’s responsibility for a chemical attack.

Those would be the same intelligence agencies whose judgment and motivations President Trump himself has openly questioned in the still-early days of his presidency. That brings matters back to the Russia probe, the scandal that hangs over all that Trump does and attempts to do on the international stage.

Indeed, the Trump White House is paying a price for its own early actions throughout this first big national security test. For a president and top aides who have displayed a casual relationship with truth and accuracy, words matter again.