Story highlights The America First Committee was founded in 1940 to oppose America entering the war

Trump's much-hyped address centered around putting "America first" on the world stage

Washington (CNN) Donald Trump on Wednesday delivered a foreign policy speech designed to lay out a new direction and draw a contrast with the previous two administrations. But for some, he instead evoked comparisons to a wing of American nationalists in the period immediately before World War II.

Trump's much-hyped address centered around putting "America first" on the world stage, a phrase he repeated throughout the speech.

But the phrase also refers to the America First movement in the early 1940s, in which some elements were associated with anti-semitism and U.S. nationalism in the lead-up to World War II.

In a statement Thursday, the Anti-Defamation League, an organization that fights anti-semitism, asked Trump to "reconsider" using the phrase.

"The undercurrents of anti-semitism and bigotry that characterized the America First movement -- including the assumption that Jews who opposed the movement had their own agenda and were not acting in America's best interest -- is fortunately not a major concern today," ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said. "However, for many Americans, the term 'America First' will always be associated with and tainted by this history. In a political season that already has prompted a national conversation about civility and tolerance, choosing a call to action historically associated with incivility and intolerance seems ill-advised."

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