US President Barack Obama has been compared to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin in a billboard by a local protest movement in Iowa state.
The North Iowa Tea Party in a billboard in Mason City shows photographs of Obama, Hitler and Lenin with the statement: "Radical leaders prey on the
fearful and naive".
The Tea Party movement, taking its name from the Boston Tea Party that opposed British tea in 1773, started in the US in 2009 to oppose federal laws.
The words "Democratic Socialism" are featured over Obama's picture, over Hitler's photo is "National Socialism" and over Lenin's head is "Marxist Socialism". The word "Change" - Obama's campaign slogan - is included on each photo, the Telegraph reported.
Placards with similar messages have been discouraged from other tea party events after they drew negative publicity. Pictures of the president daubed with a Hitler moustache were seen during the early days of the movement to protest his healthcare reform.
Other tea party factions, however, said the sign was not appropriate, while a few people said they were distasteful.
The White House has, so far, declined to comment.