Dana Milbank calls out Trump for repeatedly sending fascist signals to his base. When Congress holds hearings on anti-Semitism, they should call Trump to testify.
Dana Milbank writes about Trump in The Washington Post:
As you’ve probably heard, Donald Trump has once again raised a führer.
The former president’s Truth Social account posted a video posing the question “What happens after Donald Trump wins?” and providing a possible answer: In the background was the phrase “unified Reich.”
This follows Trump’s echoing Adolf Hitler in campaign speeches, saying that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” and calling his opponents “vermin.”
And that, in turn, followed Trump’s dining at Mar-a-Lago with high-profile antisemite Ye (Kanye West) and white supremacist leader Nick Fuentes, who likened incinerating Jews to baking cookies.
Under the three-Reichs-and-you’re-out rule, Trump should be on the bench. Yet he keeps swinging — and this week provided a sobering measure of how numb we have become to his undeniably fascist rhetoric.
Almost exactly eight years ago, Trump attacked Gonzalo Curiel, then the district judge in the Trump University fraud case, saying that his “Mexican heritage” posed “an inherent conflict of interest.” In the uproar that followed, even Republican leaders were appalled, and then-House Speaker Paul Ryan said Trump’s statement was “the textbook definition of a racist comment.”
This week, Trump did almost the same thing when he left court on Tuesday after his defense rested in the Stormy Daniels hush money case. “The judge hates Donald Trump,” he said. “Just take a look. Take a look at him. Take a look at where he comes from.” New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan emigrated from Colombia as a child. But this time there was little outcry from the inured populace, and if Republican leaders had any complaints about Trump’s textbook racism (or on his third Reich moment of this campaign) I must have missed them.
Vilifying migrants is a standard fascist trope. So is the constant claiming of victim status. Trump falsely alleged in a fundraising email this week that his opponent conspired to kill him. “Joe Biden was locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger” during the FBI’s 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago for missing classified documents, Trump wrote. He separately claimed that Biden’s Justice Department “AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE.” In reality, the FBI took extra precautions to avoid a confrontation by conducting the search when Trump was away and alerted the Secret Service. Agents were operating under the same standard rules of engagement they used when searching Biden’s home: Lethal force can be used only if in “imminent danger of death or serious physical injury.”
Also this week, Trump, asked by Pittsburgh’s KDKA-TV whether he favored restricting Americans’ access to birth control, responded: “We’re looking at that, and I’m going to have a policy on that very shortly.” After the televised interview was broadcast, Trump said the notion that he would advocate restrictions on contraception was “a Democrat fabricated lie.”
That maneuver — floating an outrageous policy and then pretending he had done no such thing — is another tool that Trump routinely uses. After Trump’s Truth Social account shared the video with the slightly-blurred “unified Reich” message during a lunch break in Trump’s trial in New York, his spokeswoman claimed the video had been “created by a random account online and reposted by a staffer who clearly did not see the word, while the president was in court.” The campaign removed the post.
Sound familiar? During the 2016 campaign, Trump tweeted an image that had been used by white supremacists of a Star of David atop a pile of cash. The campaign removed the offending post and Trump said it had been posted by a staffer. He later told a crowd that his aides “shouldn’t have taken it down.”
During that same campaign, Trump also tweeted an image of an American flag containing an image of what appeared to be Nazi Waffen-SS soldiers. The campaign removed this post, too, and blamed an intern.
The disavowal is part of the game, says Jason Stanley, a Yale philosophy professor who specializes in the rhetoric of fascism. “You do it and then you deny it and it’s just systematic, over and over and over again,” he told me in a phone call. “The people who want to hear it hear it, and it signals the direction you want to go in.” And for those uncomfortable with the extremism, the denial provides “a way of lying to themselves and telling themselves this is not what’s really going on.”
But it is. From Nazi Germany to Viktor Orban’s Hungary, Stanley says, people invariably thought the rhetoric of the rising authoritarian was exaggerated and just for dramatic effect. “Historically, people always, always don’t take it seriously,” he said. Perhaps they don’t realize that Trump is deploying the exact same tropes — against migrants, judges, gender nonconforming people, universities, the media, “Marxists” — now being used by autocrats in Russia, India and Hungary. “If you look at what Trump is saying … everywhere in the world the authoritarians are saying that.”
And yet we drift, placidly, into autocracy. Okay, Trump is unifying the Reich. But Biden is so old!
Trump’s fascist rhetoric is supported by an array of authoritarian polices, which he and his campaign have helpfully divulged.
Trump has said that his (false) election fraud claims justify “the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” He said he wouldn’t be a dictator, “other than day one,” when he would use absolute power to seal the border and drill for oil. He has proposed that those shoplifting from stores should “fully expect to be shot.” He said he would round up as many as 20 million illegal immigrants and, perhaps, put them in mass deportation camps, taking money from the military if necessary.
He said he would appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” Biden, his family and “all others involved with the destruction of our elections, borders and our country itself.” He said he would order prosecutors to “go down and indict” his political opponents if they are “doing well and beating me” — and he would fire prosecutors who don’t follow such orders. He said he would use the National Guard, and perhaps the regular military, to crack down on protests against him.
He would strip civil service protections so he could replace federal workers with Trump loyalists, and he might take over independent agencies, including the Federal Reserve. He suggested he would change laws to attack what he perceives as “anti-White” bias.
Speaking at the National Rifle Association on Saturday, Trump asked the crowd whether he should “be considered three term or two term?” Several in the crowd shouted out: “Three!”
Earlier this spring, the American Conservative published an article titled “Trump 2028” that argued the 22nd Amendment, which limits a president to two terms, “is an arbitrary restraint on presidents who serve nonconsecutive terms.” The group is part of Project 2025, to which the Trump campaign has informally outsourced its policy planning.
Trump has hinted that he would pardon those sentenced for attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He included in his courtroom entourage this week two convicted felons, Bernard Kerik, the former New York police commissioner he pardoned, and Chuck Zito, a former Hells Angels leader. During testimony, defense witness Robert Costello showed the same sort of contempt for the judge as Trump did outside the courtroom. He rolled his eyes, talked under his breath, called the proceedings “ridiculous” and complained with a “jeez” when he disagreed with Merchan’s ruling.
Trump has promised “retribution” against his political opponents, and outside Trump’s trial this week, his allies amplified the threat. “They fear Donald Trump and they fear what’s going to happen if he becomes president again — and, I tell you, they should fear,” said Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Tex.).
“Yes,” agreed Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Tex.), at his side, wearing a necktie with Trump’s face printed on it.
Trump had one final thing to say before he left the courthouse this week. Just a day after his post about the “unified Reich,” he offered a message for “Jewish people that vote for Biden and the Democrats: They should have their head examined.”
Well, I have had my head examined, and it was found to contain the following memories of things Trump has said and done:
He told his White House chief of staff John Kelly that “Hitler did some good things” and complained that U.S. generals weren’t “totally loyal” to him the way Nazi generals were to Hitler. He spoke of the “very fine people” marching among the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville. He closed out his 2016 campaign with an ad that singled out three prominent Jews with suggestions that they manipulate a “global power structure.” He was reluctant to disavow David Duke or supporters of his who harassed and threatened Jewish journalists. He has shared innumerable messages on social media from white supremacists. He has repeatedly questioned the loyalty of American Jews.
Long ago, Vanity Fair reported that Trump’s ex-wife Ivana said he read from a book of Hitler’s speeches, which he kept in a cabinet by his bed. Trump confirmed that he had the book but denied that he read it. By coincidence or design, there has been a startling overlap in their language of late.
Trump speaks of immigrants “poisoning the blood of our country” and “coming in with disease.” Hitler said that great civilizations died “as a result of contamination of the blood,” and he called Jews “the worst kind of germ-carriers in poisoning human souls.”
Trump calls his political opponents “radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.” Hitler called Jews “an inferior race that multiplies like vermin.”
Trump says that “the enemies from within are more dangerous, to me, than the enemies of the outside. Russia and China, we can handle.” Hitler spoke of “the greater inner enemy” and said that when “the internal enemy was not recognized … all efforts to resist the external enemy were bound to be in vain.”
Trump complains that “fake news is all you get, and they are indeed the enemy of the people.” Hitler complained of “the lying Marxist press” and said “the function of the so-called liberal press was to dig the grave for the German people.”
Trump claims that “we’ve never done worse than we’ve done now. … We’re so disrespected. The whole world is laughing at us.” And he warns: “If we don’t win this election, I believe we will no longer have a country.” Hitler claimed that “the Reich had fallen from a height which can hardly be imagined in these days of misery and humiliation.” He warned that “one year of Bolshevism would destroy Germany” and transform it “into chaos and a heap of ruins.”
Trump, at the end of his speeches, likes to say: “We will drive out the globalists. We will cast out the communists, Marxists, fascists. We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country.” Hitler spoke of a “world conspiracy” made up of “Jews and democrats, Bolshevists and reactionaries” and motivated by a “hatred” of Germans.
No, Trump isn’t Hitler, and the 21st century United States isn’t Weimar Germany. But Trump’s words, so obviously ripped from history’s darkest pages, lead no place good. The only thing poisoning the blood of our country is his copycat fascism.
Trump does not mention that the “judge” who is attempting, it seems, to keep his documents case from ever coming to trial is from Colombia.
One generally expects judgment from judges.
While I do believe that there is a certain philosophical and rhetorical continuum that leads from European Fascism to modern authoritarian leaders, it is important to note that the fascists themselves were a diverse lot. For decades after Hitler had been defeated and discredited before an entire generation, Franco continued to operate in Spain unobstructed, stealing babies from opponents and compromising civil rights in ways much more subtle than his German supporter. Dictators were so diverse that Jeane Kirkpatrick proposed the idea that supporting them was justified since right wing fascists might morph into more democratic regiemes as did Spain in the 1970s, whereas communists were always there to stay (her ideas were hardly cold before Russian Communism vanished in the haze of the collapse of the USSR).
American fascism will certainly be a unique brand, but the thread tying all this together is money. Not all billionaires are fascists, but the money allowed into the governments from these sources threatens to create a fascism unique to America.
Yes, but there are many universal similarities with other Fascisms. Starting with the blaming of enemies within–Marxists, immigrants, a call to return to an entirely mythical Golden Era of racial purity and nationalist pride (“Make America Great Again” is thus a Fascist slogan, as is Trump’s oft-repeated call to “Make America First”). “America First” was, ofc, the actual name of an American Fascist political party.
true that
American fascism would have the trappings of democracy, but its execution would be distorted after they rewrite legislation to institutionalize inequality and appoint a bunch of toady right wing judges. DeSantis’ Florida is a blueprint for American fascism as they make it harder to dissenters to be recognized or heard, even though “democracy” remains on the books.
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others [are].
Rt: I think you have the idea. Fascism in America has to masquerade as representative government. People in the Ante-Bellum South thought they lived in democratic society too. Well, some people thought so.
Fascism, Equivocation, and Psychopathy:
STOP THE MARCH TOWARD FASCISM!
By Jack Burgess
OK, this is a really big deal. As the political season unfolds, the question is not just who will win but what will win the 2024 election. Can we keep the “republic,” as left to us by Ben Franklin and company, or will we continue toward more of a Mussolini or Hitler model? And no, this isn’t just more D versus R partisan politics—or personality differences.
Frankly, I’m not a big fan of Joe Biden the person. He comes across as angry and bossy. His favorite word is, “Look!” and then trying to dismiss criticism, warranted or not. He’s a hawk on foreign policy, having supported Bush’s unnecessary attack on Iraq in 2003. But he’s got his good side. Seems to be kindly toward those who’ve suffered loss, and he’s got years of government experience before being President. He’s a moderate who’s trying to provide governmental programs that help ordinary folks, as with student loan debt or a lack of health care.
And his opponent? I can’t find anything good to say about Donald Trump. He was born into wealth and privilege, and sent to New York Military Academy. His political programs are a hodge-podge of slogans he thinks voters will buy. And tax cuts for the wealthy. In that he’s way he’s not too different than a lot of Republicans—and some Democrats. But he’s not an ordinary Republican, and a number of Republican leaders are opposing him.
Somewhere along the way, Mr. Trump seems to have picked up the fascist playbook. I’ve studied authoritarianism, and I think maybe he was an abused child, like Adolph Hitler. As Hitler and his ally Mussolini vilified Jewish people—blaming them for all of Germany’s and Italy’s problems in the 1920’s and ‘30’s—Trump blames all of our problems, real or imagined, on the “dangerous hombres” coming across our southern border. Or Muslims—whom he illegally tried to keep out of the country. He has simplistic solutions to the problem—build a wall. Never mind that folks who really want to come to America will dig under, climb over, fly over, sail around—you name it—to get here.
And never mind that Mr. Trump has apparently used more than a hundred illegal aliens in his hotel businesses—according to The Hill and The Washington Post—both respected news sources.
And Trump seems to admire world leaders that others see as undemocratic and unfriendly toward the US. Like Vladimir Putin of Russia.
If these things were all to say about the next presidential election, they would be enough. But Mr. Trump has said things that really should disqualify him—practically if not legally. When a guy like Trump says he’s planning to be “a dictator”—believe him! His actions—or lack of actions—while some of his supporters were storming the capital in 2020, chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” are ample evidence he’ll do just about anything to get and keep power.
And don’t forget to vote for Senate and House with these facts in mind. There are some decent Republican candidates out there, but make sure they don’t support Trump’s attempts to steal our democracy. Luckily, we’ve got an outstanding U.S. Senator in Sherrod Brown, and we need to re-elect him. Not just because he deserves it, but because if Biden does win, you can bet a Republican Congress will try to impeach him. Brown—with his long years of service to Ohioans– can be counted on to fight strongly any attempts by Trump Republicans to remove a President Biden.
And, in District 2, we’ve got a promising candidate in Samantha Meadows, with a strong affinity for Southern Ohio, who in Congress would stand up to a bullying, out-of-control Republican leadership that may attempt a political coup by impeachment, if President Biden is re-elected.
2024 is a big year for America and the world. We have to stay awake—speak up, help out—and above all, Vote!
Jack Burgess is a Veteran for Peace and a retired teacher of American & Global Studies.
(In the Chillicothe Gazette, et. al.)
Trump isn’t Hitler but the two have this in common.
“Hitler did, however, appear to Murray to have a personality disorder, specifically counteractive narcism (sic.), which is presently called narcissistic personality disorder. It is defined as ‘a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behaviour), need for admiration, and lack of empathy’.” SOURCE: Cambridge
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/levels-of-personality/is-hitler-mad-personality-disorders/5A0AEBDEEB4DBD81E74C008AD7397612
Still, Traitor Trump does Hitler one better, since the traitor is a “malignant” narcissist.
“So how does malignant narcissism differ from narcissism? The primary difference is that while narcissism involves symptoms of grandiosity and low empathy for others, a malignant narcissist tends to have more severe symptoms as well as symptoms of other co-occurring personality disorders.“
https://www.verywellmind.com/how-to-recognize-a-malignant-narcissist-4164528#:~:text=So%20how%20does%20malignant%20narcissism,other%20co%2Doccurring%20personality%20disorders.
And in Trump’s case, he says there’s no better source than the public record to prove he is ill. Gartner points out:
Gartner says he doesn’t need to sit down with Trump to recognize this is a dangerous pattern of behavior.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/2/10/14551890/trump-mental-health-narcissistic-personality
“The only thing poisoning the blood of our country is his [trumps] copycat fascism.“
HUH? This is the columnist’s conclusion?? He gets paid for writing this revisionist drivel???
How about this conclusion instead— Trump is irrelevant. He’s just the current figurehead and opportunist riding the long wave of American fascism which has been our dominant regime from the time Columbus cut off the first hand and enslaved the first Natives five centuries ago,
Today’s wave of American fascism is estimated by polling to be 80-90 million strong and in a dead heat to win the Presidency. These are your neighbors, no matter what state you live in, and they will still be here among us if trump loses–still fascists, still scheming, still looking for a leader to help them take over the rest of America.
It has always been this way. Just ask a Native, Black, immigrant, or young person trying to buy a car, home, contraception, medical care, day care, insurance or anything else. Read our history–without the whitewashing.
But Biden “looks” old…….