Trump and others

Like most people who have even the vaguest interest in global politics, I have been aghast at the depredations of Donald Trump in the United States to the extent that its democracy, pissweak though it may be, is under severe threat. It made me wonder how his activities compare with despots of the past. I therefore looked at comparisons in various facets of statehood with Hitler and Mussolini.

Media

Hitler and Mussolini exercised direct legal control over the media, using official censors and shutting down opposition media outlets^1,2. Trump cannot do that because a free press is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the US Constitution³. Instead, Trump relies on delegitimising the current media, and using his own or sympathisers’ media outlets to push his narrative. Indeed, recently some of his oligarchs have bought newspapers, television and other media networks to alter the coverage of the news to favour Trump⁴.

One common epithet Trump uses when referring to media outlets that do not pander to him is ‘fake news’ and he has stated that the press are the ‘enemy of the people’. This was a common theme in Nazi Germany when referring to undesirable people such as Jews, Gypsies, political dissidents, trade unionists, and the disabled⁵.

The epithet ‘fake news’ is redolent of the early days of the Nazi regime in Germany, where Hitler used the word Lügenpresse (lying press) to describe media organisations that disagreed with him. This term has also reappeared in Germany recently with the rise of the far right AfD party⁶.

Religion

Like Mussolini and Hitler, Trump has recognised the influence organised religion has and has sought to harness it to bolster his own influence. Hitler and Mussolini obtained the acquiescence of the churches (mostly Protestant and Catholic respectively) using diplomatic agreements or using policy concessions. Mussolini signed the Lateral Treaty in 1929 recognising the independence of the Vatican City, and making Catholicism the sole state religion, among other favours⁷.

Hitler’s Reichskonkordat of 1933 guaranteed freedom of the Catholic faith, required clergy to stay out of politics and forced the dissolution of the Catholic Centre Party⁸. However, the fractured Protestant church in Germany was a different kettle of fish. So, the Nazis attempted to create a state Reich Church under the leadership of the Nazi Bishop Ludwig Müller to unify the different branches of Protestantism. This enabled the Nazis to use a group called the ‘German Christians’ within the Reich Church to promote Nazi ideas. However, by 1937 Hitler was forced to return control of the church to the previous Protestant leadership in return for a promise that they would stay out of politics⁹.

While Trump had no state church to coerce into acquiescence, he focused on ingratiating himself with the white evangelical sector that fell for his nationalist and anti-secular messaging. He touted himself as a defender of religious liberty and appointed Supreme Court justices who would later overturn Roe v. Wade, a long-held goal of the religious right. He surrounded himself with evangelical advisors and often invoked Christian symbols and rhetoric in rallies. In addition, he pleased Christian Zionists by recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and exempted religious employers from certain rules, and by being very anti-science and anti-education, two bugbears of the religious right¹⁰.

The wealthy

With regard to Mussolini and Hitler, as well as Trump, the wealthy and their corporations knew they had little to fear and much to gain by cooperating with them. All three railed against some ‘elites’ but all delivered policies that proved beneficial to the economic elite. Mussolini’s administration banned free trade unions and has been described as instituting ‘corporatism’. Each of the 22 ‘corporations’ comprised assorted companies in an industry and were responsible for the administration of labour contracts and promotion of that industry. This system was organised and coordinated by a central corporative committee, largely run by the Fascist Party¹¹.

Like Mussolini, Hitler banned free trade unions, and fostered a crony alliance with industrialists¹². Trade unions were eradicated and replaced by entities that served the regime’s totalitarian objectives. This subjugation of the working class led to the regime’s control over the economy and society¹³.

Despite populist rhetoric, including the laughable ‘I am your voice’ when talking at rallies in front of his MAGA gullibles, Trump’s economic policies strongly favoured the wealthy and their corporations at the expense of labour. His Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, slashed the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, delivering a windfall to large companies and their shareholders. The law also doubled the estate tax exemption (benefiting wealthy heirs) and created special tax breaks for business income that disproportionately benefited high-earning owners¹⁴. Trump also oversaw broad deregulation, getting rid of some environmental and labour regulations, to the delight of several industries (coal, oil, banking etc.)^15-17

While Trump often rails against ‘globalists’, he is allied with the globalists of big business, to the extent that the stock market’s rise became a bragging point, and he even boasts that he has made billions since returning to office, adding laughably, “I’m doing it for the country, not me”¹⁸.

Nationalism

Hitler, Mussolini and Trump have all used populist rhetoric, portraying themselves as champions of the common people against alleged corrupt elites and dangerous outsiders. Hitler vowed to restore German honour, which had been undone by the traitors of 1918; these were the politicians who had prematurely ended the First World War and established the German democratic republic. For Hitler, the Army had not been defeated on the battlefield but had been undermined by political treachery at home¹⁹. Over time, this morphed into blaming non-Aryans, especially Jews. This led to widespread discrimination, imprisonment, and the genocide of the Holocaust²⁰.

Mussolini evoked a return to the greatness of the Roman empire, aiming to transform the nation into a dominant Mediterranean and African empire largely through conquest. He blamed ethnic minorities, especially Slavs and Jews, who he said were threats to the country’s unity and power^21,22.

Trump has used the phrase Make America Great Again, which is redolent of Mussolini’s rallying drivel. But like Hitler and Mussolini, he also scapegoated groups of people, such as Mexican and Haitian immigrants²³, and has used ICE to kidnap brown people and imprison them in concentration camps without due process, many of whom have been deported, while some have died. Some have been apprehended as they were attending the immigration court to go through legal processes. In the past there have been about 8,000 deportations per month of people in the US apart from those being apprehended at the border. This has now risen to about 19,000 people deported from within the US²⁴. In Trump’s second iteration, his language has become more like that of the two dictators, referring to his political opponents as “vermin” referring to them also as “Communists”, “Marxists”, “Fascists” and “radical left thugs”. He also referred to immigrants as ‘”invaders”²⁵, and that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” another phrase redolent of Hitler²⁶.

Opposition

All three of these despots justified repression as necessary for national survival. In this they all show parallel impulses in refusing to accept legitimate opposition.

Mussolini quickly attempted to crush all political opposition. By 1926, opposition political parties were banned, newspapers critical of him were shut down and outspoken opponents were exiled or murdered. He established a secret police force, OVRA (Organization for Vigilant Repression of Antifascism), which spied on, infiltrated, and eliminated anti-fascist elements. Thousands of dissidents such as liberals, socialists, communists and anarchists were imprisoned without trial²⁷.

Hitler’s regime set the standard for total suppression of dissent. Upon taking power in 1933, the Nazis banned all other political parties and dissolved the Reichstag’s opposition. The Gestapo (secret police), along with the SS, arrested, imprisoned, or executed anyone who voiced opposition or was suspected of disloyalty. The first concentration camps, such as Dachau (opened 1933), were filled with political prisoners: communists, social democrats, trade unionists, journalists, clergy who spoke out, and later anyone whispering dissent. Hitler also eliminated potential rivals within his own movement. In the 1934 ‘Night of the Long Knives’, he purged nazis he distrusted, thus warning all that even internal opposition meant death. Throughout nazi Germany, there was no tolerance for free speech, independent organisations, or protests – criticism of the Führer or the Nazi Party was a crime. Even jokes about Hitler could land you in prison²⁸.

Trump is fortunately constrained by a constitutional system, much as he tried to corrupt it by stacking the Supreme Court. He could not outlaw political parties or imprison critics at will, but he has tried to weaponise law enforcement and the courts to intimidate opposition voices. In addition, there have been threats to intimidate voters by stationing ICE around voting stations, probably as a way of deterring minorities from voting, for fear of them being kidnapped and imprisoned or deported²⁹.

Unless the November 3 mid-term elections hand the Democrats control of the House of Representatives and the Senate, so that the excesses of the toddler-in chief are heavily constrained, the US will be in deep trouble. Congress must also go after those in his cabinet who have clearly ignored court orders, ordered war crimes, murdered people, traduced the constitution, or otherwise broken the law. If they don’t, it will be a green light for every malignant narcissist in the country to try the same sort of demolition of democracy. The fact that someone like Trump could run for office demonstrates that the US political system is not fit for purpose. Given that the constitution was written in the late 1700s when travel was by horse and communication was by horse-delivered letter, and slavery was legal, and the fact that it has had only 27 amendments (including some very stupid efforts; guns, prohibition) in a quarter of a millennium, this is unsurprising. It needs to be fixed so that no wannabe dictator can ever be elected again, and no members of the House of Representatives or the Senate, can be so cowed and gutless such that they do nothing about the multifarious crimes perpetrated by people like those in the Trump regime.

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