An Expert Draws A Startling Comparison Between Trump And Hitler

There are similarities between how Hitler and Trump rose to power, but one disturbing difference is that Trump has a bigger base and more support than Hitler, historian Timothy Ryback explained.

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Warning: This is scary as Hell, but please remember that knowledge is power. Together, we can change the ending.

Is there any similarity between how Hitler rose to power and how Trump rose to power? Actually, yes. This is something we've gotten into before, as we covered Hitler rising to power through democratic means, which isn't the way most people think it happened.

Of course, people have been hyperbolically comparing politicians they don’t like to Hitler since he became shorthand for expansionist power grabs and genocide. Normally, these comparisons are inaccurate, inappropriate, and gaslighty, given the horrors of the Holocaust and Hitler’s reign of terror. But Trump’s love for dictators, his criminally-adjacent and financially deficient desperation, and his penchant for violent cruelty and attacking his own country’s democracy are facts with which we need to reckon.

But there's also a big difference, which was pointed out by historian Timothy Ryback in his new book Takeover: Hitler’s Final Rise to Power. Ryback spoke to On with Kara Swisher in episode “Lessons Learned From Hitler’s Rise To Power” to point out one big difference is that Trump has a bigger base and more support than Hitler did.

“When people compare Trump with Hitler, I know Trump is doing a lot better than Hitler ever did. And he's doing this in a democracy…”

But Ryback also says that Nazi Germany was not inevitable.

Hitler lost an election and went to court about claiming “voter fraud”

(Italicized comments are from the podcast transcript)

One is the presidential election where it was the first and only time Hitler ran for political office. He lost by 6 million votes. And this is when you go and, you know, everyone knows that… He ended up going to court claiming voter fraud and irregularities by the various state officials. And he went to court to have the election results annulled.

The Judge threw Hitler’s complaints out. But then came the next elections.

And Hitler really, you know, the, the Nazis went full out on this and in fact surge to 37%, which should have positioned Hitler to be appointed chancellor.

… Hindenberg is president of the country, article 53 Powers of the Constitution gives him the capacity to appoint and dismiss chancellors at will. And Hindenberg disliked Hitler. He disdained him. He found that he was a very divisive political force. He hated Hitler's antisemitism. He disliked everything about the man.

Hindenberg Refused to Appoint Hitler

… So Hitler did some funny math to determine that he should be chancellor.

Hitler was very much viewed as, as a buffoon. He was a pol absolutely a political outsider. But he was incredibly determined. And his, his calculation on this with his 37%, and there's is a bit of method to this madness. Hitler claimed that he had 37% of the vote. He said 37% is 75% of 51%. So I have the majority of the majority, so I should be chancellor. And that was the logic that he was using.

Loser Imposes Gridlock

OK. Here’s the part we’ve been discussing a lot lately as it pertains to the Republican Party doing Trump’s bidding, including running what appears to be a shadow government to obstruct the democratically elected REAL President of the United States.

He then did two things. One is that he couldn't become chancellor with the 37%, but he could gridlock the legislative process. So, with that 37%, they made it impossible for the Reichstag to pass laws that it just basically paralyzed the function of democracy. Then Hitler declared that he was going to run against, so they dissolved the Reichstag because of the gridlock and called for new elections in November, and then Hitler vowed to get 51% or more of the vote.

As I wrote yesterday on PoliticusUSA, House Republicans are effectively stopping the legislative process for everything - including the most basic work of the U.S. House, which they have been unable to accomplish without help from Democrats - except using it for political gain for Donald Trump’s run for presidency. I compared their work to quiet quitting, only it’s quiet treason.

It’s undermining the government, it’s seizing power not given, it’s an attempt to impose conditions that will help Donald Trump get elected, even when those conditions put U.S. national security at risk. Republicans have even been laundering Russian intelligence talking points through the U.S. House in their impeachment efforts, which Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) spoke about last night.

He then speaks about how the press was reporting President Hindenberg as having “dementia” and as a “doddering old guy, barely able to get out two sentences.” But Ryback points out - in a startling similarity to our own experiences in modern day hearing President Biden described this way versus seeing him in action, “But then you look at the meeting protocols in which he is, and you see somebody, there is absolute clarity. This is a guy who knows exactly what he's doing. He's calling people out on things. I would argue that the man was in, you know, full control of his capacities at that time.”

Unwilling to Crush Hitler

Swisher points out that Hindenberg is “just unwilling to crush Hitler. Just unwilling to crush Hitler.”

Ryback says in yet another eerie comparison to today (I often wonder if we as a society have the collective will to hold Trump accountable, certainly the courts and our institutions are not showing the spine), “Hindenberg… was following the constitution to the letter… He was there for his country. If the democratic system, the constitution was there, he was going to follow the constitution to the letter. Where I fault him. He, he was, he basically got boxed into a corner.”

Lesson: The Constitution, our institutions, coupled with good intentions won’t save us.