Some of Trump’s “fine people” at the 2017
Unite the Right rally in Charlottenburg, VA
In Germany, the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) is the second largest party in parliament. With statutes in Europe against “things Nazi,” they are politely referred to as “Euroskeptics,” but everyone knows what they really stand for. Of all countries which were impaled by Adolph Hitler’s murderous Nazi reign, where today tolerance is the norm, you might be shocked. But the notion of ethnic, religious and/or racial purity is a theme you see running deep in longstanding ostensible democracies. But then there’s Trump’s “model of leadership” in Victor Orban’s Hungary, Recep Erdogan’s Turkey… and the fact that even Vladimir Putin began his tenure as an elected president. Oh, and the MAGA platform itself. Blame and purge “immigrants” who are raising a standing “army” to take us over. Instill Christian fundamentalism as the national faith. Pledge to start a new Trump presidency as a dictatorship.
Our journalists have tiptoed around the rising Nazi reality in the United States, calling this massive and rising phenomenon “white Christian nationalism” instead of what it really is: neo-Nazism. Wikipedia looks at the root words behind “Nazi” (the National Socialist Party): “Nazism, the common name in English for National Socialism, is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. During Hitler's rise to power in 1930s Europe, it was frequently referred to as Hitlerism.” The Britannica Dictionary adds this description of what a Nazi is: “an evil person who wants to use power to control and harm other people especially because of their race, religion, etc.”
We also tend to believe that Donald Trump personally, intentionally and continuously invokes Nazi terminology. He has stated that Hitler wasn’t all bad. There is a rather consistent Nazi theme running through his campaign, not an accident. Self-admitted “non-reader” Trump is hardly influenced by a study of Nazi history and philosophy, no matter what the “liberal media” may suggest. I seriously doubt that Trump himself posted a recent video on his social media site that mentioned “creation of a unified Reich.” “This was not a campaign video; it was created by a random account online and reposted by a staffer who clearly did not see the word, while the president was in court,” said Trump campaign a staffer Karoline Leavitt in a statement to the Associated Press.
Unfortunately, Trump’s natural attraction to Nazi thought seems to be a combination of admiration for Nazi efficiency and his proclivity to populate some of his closest advisors (and their appointees) with those who seem to march to the beat of a Nazi drummer. Antisemitic, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and anti-non-white rhetoric are cornerstones of Trump’s MAGA platform. His followers have been told to “stand back and stand-by” and that if he does not win the “rigged” election in November, there will be a “bloodbath.” Writing for the May 25th Los Angeles Times, Benjamin Oreskes reminds us: “In December, Trump said in a speech that immigrants were ‘poisoning the blood of the country’ echoing Hitler’s repeated invocations that Jews were ‘poisoning’ Aryan Germans. Trump, at the time, said he was unaware of the parallel and had never read Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf.’
“During the 2020 campaign, Trump seemed to endorse ‘racehorse theory’ — the idea that selective breeding can improve a country’s performance. This idea was foundational to the Nazi notion of racial purity… Trump also called political opponents ‘vermin,’ a term frequently employed by the Nazis… A recent tell-all from journalists Peter Baker and Susan Glasser describes how Trump complained that American military officials weren’t ‘totally loyal’ to him and how he reportedly asked his chief of staff, retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly: ‘Why can’t you be like the German generals?’…Kelly pointed out that Hitler’s generals tried to assassinate him, according to Glasser and Baker.
“‘Nazism, imperialism, and dictatorship all fly in the face of democracy,’ said George Mason professor Tehama Lopez Bunyasi, who has studied the ways in which race and identity intersect with politics. ‘The American people should beware any candidate who does not rebuke these three outright.’
“Gavriel D. Rosenfeld, president of the Center for Jewish History, said Trump’s repeated flirtations with this sort of rhetoric and meetings with white nationalist Nick Fuentes condition people to look for the subtlest signs of antisemitism and parallels to Hitler… In 2022, Trump had dinner with Fuentes and rapper Kanye West, who has repeatedly made antisemitic remarks in recent years.
“Rosenfeld theorized that the Reich video could be ‘Gen Z staffers on the Trump team that like smuggling in ‘Where’s Waldo’-style far-right icons into official Trump/GOP messaging,’ as hidden messages for far-right peers… It wouldn’t be the first time that has happened. Last year, the presidential campaign of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis fired a staffer who made a video of the governor that invoked Nazi ideology.
“Then there are social media posts that come from people not directly connected to campaigns… During the 2020 presidential race, Facebook removed a pro-Trump post that included an upside-down red triangle, a symbol Nazis used to tar opponents. The New York Times reported that the anonymous social media user who purportedly made the video had posted several times that its meaning was clear, and there was ‘not a secret hidden message.’”
At the core of Trump’s de facto embrace of Nazi rhetoric is his senior campaign operative, former White House senior policy advisor and director of speechwriting: Stephen Miller. Miller’s current rightwing activist America First Legal is known for suing persons, institutions and businesses using purported “anti-discrimination” laws to support White Christian nationalism. Writing for the May 22nd FastCompany.com, Nancy Scola drills down on Trump’s rightwing miscreant-in-chief: “Miller made his name as the aide to former president Donald Trump who devised the administration’s restriction on Muslim visitors to the U.S. in 2017 and later championed the separation of migrant families at the border. After leaving the White House, Miller launched a litigation factory called America First Legal (AFL), which has been waging a campaign against progressive policies in the Biden administration and, increasingly, corporations...
“‘It’s part of an intentional, well-organized attempt to restore barriers to the American dream,’ says Stacey Abrams, the former Democratic leader of the Georgia House of Representatives and 2022 gubernatorial candidate, of AFL’s [litigation efforts against diversity]. There are three main avenues to progress for Americans, she contends: voting, getting an education, and starting or working for a small business. All of them, she says, have been under attack. ‘That should terrify everyone.’
“[Miller’s AFL lawsuit against Hello Alice, the online platform for entrepreneurs that Al Gore had cofounded, which offered $25,000 grants to Black-owned businesses] is part of a larger battle against diversity being waged in corporate America by a host of right-wing organizations and individuals, from the lawmakers pushing anti-ESG (environmental, social, and governance) legislation in statehouses across the country to Edward Blum, the legal mastermind behind the case that led to the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision banning affirmative action in college admissions. In the past seven months, AFL has filed federal civil rights complaints against Disney for its efforts to diversify its writers rooms and production teams; Nike, for emphasizing representation in hiring and training; and the NFL, for adopting the Rooney Rule to consider candidates from underrepresented groups for management positions. Miller’s group has also lodged lawsuits against Meta, Amazon, and CBS for diversity-focused practices. Some companies that have come under attack have quietly dismantled the offending programs; others have settled. Most have the resources to fight.”
Oddly, much of MAGA actually supports this march to rightwing, Christian nationalist autocracy. They do not see another way to keep a rising cadre of racial, ethnic and religious minorities from “replacing” (voting) that traditional White legacy declining majority; if underlying Nazi themes do the job, sobeit!
I’m Peter Dekom, and if “they can do that to anyone, they can do it to you.”
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