I don’t know how many times that I’ve told people that it’s wrong to compare Trump to Hitler or even Stalin. Hitler is and will forever remain in a category of his own, and any comparisons are terribly wrong, even though Trump himself told John Kelly, “Hitler did some good things…,” none of that matters. It is entirely intolerable and disrespectful of the six million Jews killed in concentration camps and their families to this day. You just don’t.
Even comparisons to Stalin are inappropriate. I’ve always said that Trump was the “wanna-be” Mussolini as the aptest comparison. Mussolini was in bed with Italy’s corporate structure, too, and was interested in money more so than Hitler or Stalin. Franco might be the best comparison, but I haven’t studied the fascist period enough to be sure.
So Trump decided to offend hundreds of millions of Americans this morning by invoking Hitler’s most brutal police when he complained about the wrong thing:
Many of the so-called “documents” that the “Gestapo” took in the Raid of Mar-a-Lago, unlike the”No Raids of Biden,” were merely inexpensive and very common folders with words such as “Presidential Reading,” “Confidential,” “Classified,” or other words stamped on the front cover. There was nothing inside of the folders because, during meetings where information was passed out, say at the Oval Office, when finished the papers inside were taken back, but the empty folders were left behind.
Well, the key word there might be “many,” because we know that many files were not empty. Additionally, it makes very little sense to pack up empty file folders, so the fact that they’re empty is that much more worrisome. Besides, Trump has a much bigger problem right now in directing an aide to download the information on a laptop and create a thumb drive.
But calling the FBI the “Gestapo” is a new level and one that infuriated many Americans (Including me, though not Jewish, it should offend anyone capable of empathy). Listen to the head of the Anti-Defamation League:
A number of right-wing officials are comparing the FBI's executed warrant on Trump's home to police tactics in Nazi Germany. Let's be clear: it's never appropriate to make such comparisons to the Holocaust–doing so demeans the memory of six million murdered Jews. This must stop. https://t.co/GE5OHUnOgo
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) August 9, 2022
Of course, Trump was nowhere near Hitler, but his fascist instincts were in line with those of the past. I do not condone this person saying that Trump was literally the Nazi handbook. It is out of the fascist 101 handbook:
In court documents Oath Keepers testify that Trump intention was to invoke the Insurrection Act & somehow through it, create a 'federal militia' out of the Oath Keepers to become a private army loyal only to Trump
This is LITERALLY the Hitler Nazi cookbook that created Gestapo pic.twitter.com/LYzW6cSreu
— Tomi T Ahonen Stands With Ukraine (@tomiahonen) July 2, 2022
But the point is made most succinctly here:
Notorious for their brutal methods of torture, the Gestapo was one of the main perpetrators of the Holocaust. Trump compares the FBI to it. pic.twitter.com/pHgjIR5uUF
— Bastian Brauns (@BastianBrauns) February 14, 2023
It is easy to say that we’ve heard all this before. We haven’t. Or if we have heard Trump compare the FBI to the Nazis, I missed it. But this is how dangerous it is getting. The FBI – made up of regular Americans, most of better character than me (quite selective) – is akin to Hitler’s Germany and the “Gestapo”? Does Trump know that DOJ attorneys prepared the motion and affidavit? Does he know that a judge examined every word, knowing that he was about to sign the most controversial affidavit in American history? In short, does Trump even know that the FBI merely carried out what the lawyers and judge asked them to do?
No. And that’s another part of the problem. Trump is trying to beat up the FBI such that none of his supporters, perhaps one on a jury, will believe anything presented by an FBI agent witness on the stand.
****
[email protected], @JasonMiciak, SUBSTACK: MUCH LEFT ADO
Too bad instead of innocent college students being shot by one of the 400 million guns the Guns Over People party put on the street, the bullets weren’t put to the same use the GIs used them for…to stop nazi bastards here on our soil. Harsh? Tell that to the 400,000 dead boys lost in WW2. Tell that to the 6 million murdered Jews. If you find some nice way to turn these murderous bastards around…PLEASE DO ENLIGHTEN US.
Just so people know, those folders Trump is so dismissive about are part of a set of rules and regulations for transportation of Classified Materials. Violating those procedures is cause for legal action. When such materials are in there original, secure place they are stored away BUT when being transported to and from they are required to be in a folder that has the appropriate security (level) markings. Anyone just carrying documents back (say to the NSA space in the WH or stuffing them in a briefcase would be in deep shit. That again begs the question you posed which is just how much stuff is missing? And worse, where is it now? Worst of all, who has seen it that wasn’t authorized to do so?
Says the guy who wants to be god-king of America.
“Franco might be the best comparison, but I haven’t studied the fascist period enough to be sure.”
Nah. Franco was a legitimate military leader who didn’t try to get out of military service (in fact, his family had served in the Spanish navy–including a few admirals–for 6 generations; Franco only joined the army because of Spain’s defeat in the Spanish-American War).
Franco likely wouldn’t give Trumpt the time of day simply because of his avoidance of serving in Vietnam (and I really can’t imagine Franco wanting to be anywhere near someone who claimed that living in New York City and avoiding STDs was the same as serving in Vietnam).
Franco was pretty despicable but he did have a sense of honor (on HIS terms, though; that’s why he didn’t join the Axis Powers in WW2–not just because the country had gone through three years of civil war, but he really didn’t like Hitler and barely tolerated Mussolini on a personal level).
The former guy says this, and then comes out in favor of MOAR EXECUTIONS.