“Hitler Did a Lot of Good Things”
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Let’s talk about Trump and the Nazis
I have a confession to make.
Early on in the Trump presidency, I was one of those people who warned others against using hyperbole and sinking into hysteria.
While many around me were comparing the rise of Trump to the political ascendency of Hitler and Mussolini in Europe in the 20s and 30s, I was urging against drawing too many comparisons.
Flash forward to the present day and I no longer have any issues with anyone using the word “fascist” in relation to Trump and the modern Republican Party.
In fact, nowadays I use the term myself.
But it’s not just me that you should listen to.
According to two new books, Trump himself has reportedly given a positive assessment of Hitler’s rule, and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Mark Milley has made direct comparisons between the Trump government and the Nazi takeover of Germany, when speaking to his aides about the former president’s behavior at the start of 2021.
“Hitler did a lot of good things”
Trump reportedly used this phrase about the Nazi leader when speaking to his chief of staff, John Kelly, according to Michael C Bender in his book: Frankly, We Did Win This Election,
I’m sure that nobody needs reminding that Hitler ordered the deaths of thousands in concentration camps, ravaged multiple continents with war, and committed numerous other atrocities.
Whatever the “good things” are that Trump is thinking of, we can only guess, but he apparently sees them as worth mentioning.
In response to the report about his Hitler remark, Trump issued a full denial, but it does unfortunately sound like something that he’s very capable of saying.
The “Reichstag Moment”
Milley’s view on Trump, according to the book: I Alone Can Fix This, by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, and reported in New York magazine, was that Trump desired to launch some sort of military coup in early January.
Not long before the deadly insurrection at the Capitol, America’s top general told aides that Trump was preaching “the gospel of the Führer”, deliberately fomenting protests in order to find an excuse to launch a crushing nationwide takeover aimed at suppressing any opposition and holding onto the presidency.
Students of history will know that Hitler used the burning down of the Reichstag, the meeting place of the German government, as an excuse to consolidate Nazi power. The arsonist was never found and many believe that it was a deliberate act by the Nazis themselves to create an excuse for the crackdown.
This is what Milley was referring to when he spoke of Trump looking for a “Reichstag Moment”
“We’re the guys with guns”
It’s also reported in the book by Leonnig and Rucker that Milley was warned by an “old friend” that Trump and his cronies planned to “overturn the government”, once it became clear that Biden was headed to become president, despite Trump’s (false) allegations of electoral fraud.
Milley’s response to the threat was, according to the book: “They may try, but they’re not going to fucking succeed. You can’t do this without the military. You can’t do this without the CIA and the FBI. We’re the guys with guns.”
“Brownshirts”
It’s also reported that Milley compared Trump-supporting groups, such as the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys, with Hitler’s Brownshirts (Braunhemden), who were a politically motivated and organized gang of thugs used to intimidate and physically assault opponents of the Nazis.
“These are the same people we fought in [the second world war],” Milley reportedly said about Trump’s thugs and paramilitaries.
So what conclusions can we draw from all this?
If you don’t feel any sense of alarm at this point, then you probably haven’t fully grasped the gravity of what really went on in the period following the presidential election.
Most of us who follow politics were concerned that something very bad was happening, but now it seems that we actually underestimated the depth of it.
And the problem has not gone away.
Trump is still pushing the Big Lie about the election, and his “Brownshirts” are currently standing by, awaiting orders. Along with the introduction of voting restrictions, intolerance of dissent, and the spread of untruths and conspiracies by the GOP, it’s something that just can’t be ignored.
