Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has faced social media bans for promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories, excoriated “Nancy Pelosi’s gazpacho police” in a TV interview.

She claimed Pelosi, the Democrat who serves as Speaker of the House of Representatives, has these apparent vegetable voyeurs “spying on members of Congress”.

The embarrassing mix-up drew a comment from the “Soup Nazi” himself – Larry Thomas, who became famous as a touchy soup chef in a classic episode of TV sitcom Seinfeld.

“How in the world can a grown person, who grew up in the 20th century, not know what the word Gestapo is?” he asked. “They say ‘You can’t write this shit.’ It’s beyond you can’t write this shit.”