Randy Weber, the Texas congressman known for making inflammatory statements against the president, made a Twitter post on Monday comparing President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler. The criticism was due to Obama not attending an anti-terrorism march in Paris last Sunday, a rally held to show solidarity after attacks last week that killed 17 people. The event drew millions of people, including 40 world leaders.

Weber, a conservative representing a Galveston-based district, misspelled Adolf in his post (Adolph), which said that Hitler thought it more important to get to Paris for the wrong reasons, yet Obama could not get there for the right reasons. He was referring to Hitler’s 1940 visit to Paris after Nazi troops invaded and subsequently occupied France. Jane Harley, U.S. ambassador to France, participated in the rally.

The tweet has attracted widespread backlash on Twitter. Weber posted an apology tweet on Tuesday to all those offended.  In a written statement he said it was not his intent to “trivialize the Holocaust,” or compare Obama to Hitler. Weber has often taken to Twitter to criticize the president, referring to him as “Emperor Obama,” a “Socialistic dictator,” and “Kommandant-In-Chef” [sic].

World Jewish Congress CEO Robert Singer said in an emailed statement that came hours before the apology that putting the president on a level with the “most evil mass murderer of all times” crossed a “red line.”

Josh Earnest, White House press secretary, apologized on Monday for the Obama administration not sending someone “with a higher profile” to Sunday’s rally in Paris. Earnest explained that there was short notice in the planning of the rally, and that it was thought that Obama’s attendance, due to security challenges, would have had “significant impact” on the march. With only about 36 hours to prepare it was determined that the event posed too high a security risk.

Secretary of State John Kerry has dismissed the criticism and announced that he is making a trip to Paris later this week. Kerry said that he did not attend the rally because of commitments in India at an international investment conference, an appearance that had been scheduled for a long time. He will be stopping in France on his way home from this event.

Weber’s tweet is not the first widely-publicized comparison to Hitler. A sixth-grade teacher at a Washington, DC middle school landed in hot water last September after assigning students to draw comparisons between Adolf Hitler and former president George W. Bush as part of a class project, telling students that “both men abused their powers.” George W. Bush and Hitler were also compared by German justice minister Herta Daubler-Gmelin in 2002, when discussing U.S. tactics in Iraq.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton compared Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to protect Russians in Ukraine to Hitler protecting ethnic Germans outside of Germany. In 2010 Georgia GOP Rep. John Yates said that illegal immigrants are like Hitler and should be shot because they are enemies of the U.S., like Hitler.

In 1986 Cuban President Fidel Castro said that President Ronald Reagan was as irresponsible and unscrupulous as Hitler, following a bombing in Libya. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi compared the entire United States to Hitler in 2011 after U.S., French and British forces launched air strikes against him.

The recent tweet comparing Obama to Hitler no longer appears on Randy Weber’s Twitter site.