Citizen Trump is accelerating his pre-planned script as America’s authoritarian leader. He sounds increasingly like anointed dictators he emulates, Putin and his earliest dictator-role-model, Adolph Hitler. His presidential election campaign is already historically outrageous. Trump threatens the rise of an American Third Reich, if reelected.
There are frightening likenesses between Hitler’s rise to power and Trump’s reelection plan. Worse yet, Trump’s authoritarian intentions for 2025 are entirely achievable.
We must not be dismissive of his many outlandish statements as meaningless bravado. We must take his angry promises, if reelected, very seriously. We should listen carefully even if he isn’t reelected. In Ohio, he recently threatened America with violence if he loses. “It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.”
Trump’s Third Reich Campaign Language
Citizen Trump’s campaign rhetoric has degenerated into the crazed speech of the twentieth century’s most reprehensible dictator, Adolf Hitler. American media has highlighted his embrace of views of the Third Reich, using words like vermin, retribution and phrases that provoke fear of a diminishing role of white Americans. The comparisons are undeniable.
In campaign speeches, Trump has promised to eliminate enemies, the “vermin.” “We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and radical thugs that live like vermin.”
Hitler frequently characterized Jewish people and other enemies as “vermin.” “Should I not also have the right to eliminate millions of an inferior race that multiples like vermin?”
In Mein Kampf, Hitler described his enemies as “the rats that poison our body-politic.”
Trump has declared that America’s greatest enemy is within. “The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous and grave than the threat from within.” (This is too articulate to have been written by Trump. Someone else likely wrote it as a planned quote for the media. Stephen Miller(?))
Hitler stated in Mein Kampf that “the enemy is in our own camp.”
Trump made a clearly racist statement about immigrants to the U.S. “It’s poisoning the blood of our country.”
Again, Trump betrays his knowledge of Hitler’s playbook, Mein Kampf, in which Hitler wrote, “All of the great civilizations of the past deteriorated because of contamination of the blood.” Hitler added that it is a Jewish person who “poisons the blood of others…”
Trump has promised Revenge against political opponents and Retribution for his followers.
Mein Kampf is in two volumes, the first of which is “Revenge.” Nazi Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels assured “Retribution” upon Britain during WW II. In 1941, the Nazi bombing of Belgrade, Yugoslavia was called “Operation Retribution.”
Trump acknowledged owning a copy of Mein Kampf in a Vanity Fair interview, but now denies it. Trump’s ex-wife, Ivana, stated that Trump reads a book of Hitler speeches, “My New Order,” which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed. What righteous person would have such a book so close and dear?
What influences enabled Trump’s fascination with one of the world’s most evil men, particularly since he rarely reads books?
Trump’s Influencers
Fred Trump
Trump’s father, Fred, was known for his sympathies for the racist policies of Hitler. He was reputedly involved with the German-American Bund, a pro-Nazi support group during WWII. Fred was arrested at a KKK white supremacist rally in Jamaica, N.Y. in 1927. (The Washington Post published a photograph of Fred’s arrest record.) In New York, he was known to be mob connected.
The Trumps built apartment buildings in Jamaica, N.Y. that excluded blacks. Trump’s niece Mary Trump has stated that racist and antisemitic talk was the environment in which Donald Trump grew up.
Roy Cohn
There is no doubt that Trump’s father had great influence on who Trump is, but his greatest mentor for 12 years, since he was 23, was Roy Cohn. Cohn is often described as the most amoral, ruthless lawyer anyone had ever known. He was, nevertheless, Trump’s teacher and hero. Trump’s conduct in his business life in New York and during his Presidential term, mirrored Roy Cohn.
Young lawyer, Roy Cohn, was Chief Counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy throughout the McCarthy hearings in the 1950s. Many people were accused of being communists, destroying their lives. Cohn was his tireless advocate, until McCarthy’s disgrace, when his power and reputation deteriorated.
A compelling description of Roy Cohn comes from Michael Krause, a senior staff writer for Politico, entitled “The Final Lesson Donald Trump Never Learned From Roy Cohn.”
Upon returning to law practice in New York, he was a remarkably successful advocate, known to be a relentless pit bull with no conscience. Although he had prestigious clients early on, his criminal conduct caught up with him. As Krause noted, he was indicted four times from the mid-sixties to the early seventies. His alleged crimes included “stock-swindling, obstruction of justice, perjury, bribery, extortion, blackmail and filing false reports.” Yet he was acquitted three times and the fourth time ended in a mistrial. Former federal prosecutor Jim Zirin described Cohn as the “prototypical Teflon man” in his book, “Plaintiff in Chief: A Portrait of Donald Trump in 3,500 Lawsuits.” Cohn slithered away from prosecution the way his client, John Gotti did– the “Teflon Don.”
He became a Mafia Consiglieri whose clients included Fat Tony Solerno, Carmine Galante and John Gotti. Through most of those years, Trump was his student-protégé. He viewed Cohn admiringly, from 1973 to 1985. In 1986, Roy Cohn was disbarred
As Cohn’s protégé, Donald Trump learned how to “flout the rules”, as his mentor did. During his entire career in law, Cohn fully understood the legal system and how to manipulate it to his benefit. As Cohn told Trump, “I decided long ago to make my own rules.”
Trump was the eager student of the Cohn Rules:
Never admit wrong-doing; Never admit fault; No matter what—prove me wrong; Never give in; Don’t pay your bills, dare creditors to sue you; When sued, always counter claim, putting the claimant on the defense; Lie and attack; Be a pit bull; Intimidate; Bluff; Deflect and distract; Brag about being a tax cheat; Believe in the power of chaos and fear; Always use publicity to your advantage; Declare wrong-doing of your adversaries in public; Be the User of Users.
The Cohn Rules have long been on display in Trump’s life in business, politics and, most assuredly, in each of the civil and criminal trials he has faced and will face. There has not been an ounce of integrity, adherence to legal ethics or respect for our legal system in the Cohn Rules, yet Trump has fully adopted them.
Trump loved Cohn because he was shamelessly ruthless. That is the kind of man that Trump aspired to be. He achieved his goal. Trump sought, but did not find, lawyers like Roy Cohn in his Presidency. He won’t make the same mistake, if reelected.
Working with Roy Cohn, Trump learned the power of using ruthless lawyers to achieve his goals in the American justice system.
Trump showed his proud mentor how ruthless he could be. He quickly moved to other lawyers when Cohn was disbarred and dying. Trump never came to see him before he died. He dropped him like a stone.
Necessary Components of Our Democracy
Our American Democracy has critical elements which must be observed and vigorously defended. Our Constitution and the Rule of Law must be sacrosanct. The protection of these elements requires lawyers, judges and elected officials who are committed to democracy.
Lawyers begin with a rigorous law school curriculum and bar exams which culminate in an Oath to preserve our Constitution and Rule of Law throughout their professional lives. American lawyers are our “officers of the court” in civil and criminal trials in state and federal advocacy systems. They protect and defend our adherence to the fairness of our trial system, whether advocating for litigants in civil matters or defending and prosecuting parties to criminal trials. They are also the enforcers of our Constitutional provisions and our civil and criminal laws. They are our judges and Supreme Court Justices who interpret our Constitution and assure compliance with those provisions in state and federal laws. They are our legal scholars who teach our law students and enlighten our legal system.
Our officials at the state and federal level are elected by the people and take an Oath to preserve our democracy that is equally critical to sustaining our free society.
Despite attacks against our Rule of Law and election requirements in the 2020 Presidential election, lawyers, judges and elected officials protected our democracy. Their adherence to their Oaths of office preserved our democratic system of government.
Will democracy again be saved in 2024? Will a Trump election turn our country into an American Third Reich?
Hitler Became an Officer of The Democracy in The Weimar Republic
Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in the German government was not through violence. Certainly, in Hitler’s early years (the 1920s), he was known for the beer hall brawls of his thugs, the Brown Shirts, violently protesting the German government. Once he became an officer of the Weimar Republic, however, he used the legal system to solidify his control of the state.
In 1919, in post-WW I, the Weimar Republic was formed. It created a constitutional republic and emerged as a well-regarded democracy, albeit plagued by post-war economic distress. Nonetheless, the Weimar Constitution provided for independent judges, bound by the law. Lawyers were subject to ethical constraints. The legal system maintained a successful, independent Bar and judiciary.
In the 1920s, Hitler began to build a following, based largely upon hatred of German Jews, for the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, the Nazis. The Great Depression in 1929 impaired the young democracy’s progress, but created public dissatisfaction that helped Hitler increase his Nazi base. By the early 1930s, Germany had a substantial minority of Nazi members. Similarly, Trump has created a significant minority of loyal MAGA followers before his second reelection effort to again lead the world’s most successful democracy.
The leader of Germany’s Democratic Republic, President Paul von Hindenburg, was effectively forced to agree to a coalition government with the Nazis. He agreed that Hitler would become Chancellor, second only to President von Hindenburg, in January, 1933.
How then, did Hitler deal with the existing democratic legal system as a minority party, while subordinate to the German President? The answer is that Hitler took the initial steps that Trump will take, if reelected.
And they had to be stopped how? By guns. Before that was successful, 11 million people were systematically murdered. We can do it with a vote paid for by the death of patriots from the Revolutionary War to the present. If we fail to act responsibly, then prepare to become a person you don’t know…either a victim or a revolutionary solider who may have to defend yourself and democracy by killing someone. That you can take to the bank. When sent to prison, I was essentially a pacifist. When faced with the real possibility of being a victim of irrational violent men, I became a dangerous man capable of killing someone if I had to in order to save my life. I clearly saw that approach didn’t work in every case, but it was that or become prey, which was a guarantee of attracting predators. So vote, so you won’t be faced with the unimaginable. If this nazi steals the power again, this time he will mass murder people. Of all the accounts I’ve read about Hitler, or any tyrant, I’ve never read they had any conscience or regret about their actions. No serial killer ever broke down in court crying over what they had done. The killers never do. VOTE! Oh, and if you are deluded enough to think your idea of God is going to step in to save you…ask the children of Gaza how that works. Vote!
We need to drive out the Democratic vote as never before.
I suspect the creator of the universe has better things to do than to watch humanity f*ck up his creation.
trump will not get into the w.h. again. If he were to win the election in Nov. it would be because cheating went on at the polling stations and in the red state legislatures. Before inauguration day someone would take the dumb-ass out. There are too many millions of people who remember very, very, well how incompetent he was, the mess he made of the pandemic, and the mess he left President Biden to clean up. Many of those same millions take his violent and asinine rhetoric to heart. No, he’s not getting anywhere near the oval again. I’m not so sure about whatever v.p. he picks. That might be another sticky wicket.
I don’t think he’s going to get elected. You didn’t see the backlash amongst Republicans in 2020 like you do today in the primaries. He can’t stand up to a loss of 20% of Republicans. That will finish him off.
I don’t want to predict a smooth win for Biden, in this insane atmosphere, but as close as these past two elections have run, if 20% of the grassroots Republican electorate, the people who vote in primaries, are making a very vocal statement, “We don’t want him,” that could devolve into big numbers in November.
MAGA makes a lot of noise, like any circus. Let’s see what the Silent Majority says as Ronnie Raygun put it.
The rich oligarchs who support Maga would do well to study the history of Fritz Thyssen, a German industrialist in the 1930s, once,” The Richest Man In Germany’, and an early supporter of Hitler. He was lucky to survive forced work in a Concentration Camp after the seizure of his assets. Trump doesn’t tell that scorpion story for nothing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Thyssen
Did he practice the look in a mirror before his mugshot?
That is scary as hell. And it’s too odd to be coincidence. OTOH, Trump swears he never heard of Hitler.
If he did, that was time wasted. He looks like an idiot. He doesn’t look scary, intimidating, or anything like what he was going for. He merely looks stupid. Although in all honesty, he pretty much always looks stupid. Every time I have the misfortune of seeing that dumb-ass mugshot, I feel deeply ashamed that was allowed into the w.h.
Thank you for the Thyssen story. Certainly I hope/pray Trump won’t win. I hope to dissuade anyone thinking about voting for him against it. Trump does have resources behind him that do scare me. I will address that in Part II of this article.
He is the worst president we have ever had and a traitor to America. I have believed that since he ran the first time.