Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday compared himself to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, triggering shock and anger among Jewish groups in United States. Duterte made the analogy when he said, “Hitler massacred three million Jews. Now, there are three million drug addicts [in the Philippines] and I will be happy to slaughter them,” reported the Washington Post. He said that if Germany had Hitler, Philippines will have him and added that critics have often referred to him as “a cousin of Hitler".

Head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Digital Terrorism and Hate project Rabbi Abraham Cooper said, “Duterte owes the victims [of the Holocaust] an apology for his disgusting rhetoric." Todd Gutnick, the director of communications at The Anti-Defamation League in the US, said it is “inappropriate and offensive” to compare Holocaust victims with drug dealers and users. "It is baffling why any leader would want to model himself after such a monster," he added.

Experts told Reuters his comments will have repercussions on the US-Philippines relations as Jewish groups are likely to mount pressure on White House take a hard line on Duterte. The country’s relationship with Washington has come under increasing strain since Duterte took office. On Thursday, he said the country’s joint military drills with the United States next week will be its last. Earlier this month, he called US President Barack Obama a “son of a bitch” and said, “I am no American puppet.”

Duterte has been under the scanner of various international human rights bodies who have accused him of extrajudicial killings. Ever since he took office on June 30, more than 3,000 drug dealers and users have been killed in a number of police counters and vigilante killings. Duterte was elected in May this year and his biggest poll plank was the eradication of drugs and corruption.

Earlier this month, self-confessed former assassin in Philippines Edgar Matobato said that Duterte once killed a justice department employee with a submachine gun when he was the mayor of Davao. Matibato alleged that Duterte “emptied two Uzi magazines on” Jamisola, an agent from the justice department’s National Bureau of Investigation in 1993. He added that the president had ordered a death squad to kill drug dealers, rapists, snatchers and opponents mercilessly.