Germany was a democracy before ole Adolf as well. Proud successful country. Mr Hitler attacked his own country in a failed coup attempt like Trump but was jailed during which he wrote the book Mein Kampf that Trump has referenced several times. Then about 10 years later they made this same criminal their leader.
Trump and Adolf use the same terminology, similar tactics. No one saw it coming but day by day democracy was dismantled. Immigrants were demonized. Called vermin in Germany and now in the US. Enemies of the people. He had a rabid following that loved when he said he would make Germany great again, thought he could do no wrong no matter how wrong he was. Politicians were complicit and bowed to his will, all backbone all prior honorable behavior a thing of the past. It happened day by day, brick by brick till the unbelievable was reality and all was gone. Think we are immune? FYI we are not.
First, let me say that Trump is a POS. I think he's a terrible human being and terrible for the country. Hitler was obviously a POS as well. Nothing I'm about to type should be taken as a defense of Donald Trump or his policies.
Now, some levity...
I 100% understand your point and I agree that on the surface there are some parallels. However, this whole 2nd coming of the Nazis thing that's being thrown around is misguided.
I know you won't do this on my recommendation and don't expect anyone to, but I do recommend that anyone interested in European history and politics in general read the book, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" by William Shirer. It's a fabulous book that in my opinion has to be the most researched historical account of all time. It's universally accepted and viewed as the most comprehensive study of the beginning, middle, and end of the Nazi party and all it's players. Unfortunately it's also the "Moby Dick" of history books in that it's very long, and requires a good deal of note-taking and study to get through. There are literally hundreds of people mentioned to various degrees and it is very, very tedious to read. Not something you're going to casually knock out in a week and get anything out of.
With that out of the way, I've read it carefully because the topic interests me, and I am confident in saying that Trump has in no way the power to do what Hitler did. First, because he's not the same type of person, and second the United States of now and the Germany of then were two very, very different places under very different circumstances and situations.
1930s Germany was comparatively very small country run with almost monarchistic rule. There was a German version of a parliament, but it was a total puppet at the time of von Hindenburg and his small group of insiders. Germany was in complete shambles after WW1 and Hitler had started at ground zero, murdering and blackmailing people one-by-one until he was made chancellor by a dying (and blackmailed) von Hindenburg. You can admittedly draw some comparisons to 2025 USA, but those comparisons don't go deeper than the surface.
There are a whole lot of differences between these two situations. Some of them in no particular order...
1) 1930s Germany was in shambles as mentioned, with a tiny, mostly powerless military confined to an even tinier geographical area. No navy, no air force, no power inside its borders, let alone outside. Once Hitler took the chancellery and started literally murdering his political opponents, he was able to insert his own military and then begin building it from the ground up into what it became in 1941. The US military of present is the exact opposite of the one Hitler assumed control over. Made up of millions of servicepeople spread over literally millions of square miles, comprised of all different political persuasions. Yes, the US military populous leans towards conservative, but the notion that Donald Trump is going to wave his hand and have millions of service members immediately turn their weapons on the US at his whim is absolutely absurd. He does not have that control. He has what I'd call some level of control over hardcore conservatives, but that does not equal a total and complete takeover of control of the country.
2) As I mentioned earlier, Germany was a small country with a small population who were reeling from the poorly thought out Treaty of Versailles. They were pinned in a corner with no economy, hyperflation, and no access to resources that any country would need to survive. The people were looking to any leader they could to lead them out of it, and almost the whole population was on board with Hitler's message which did not include his plans to take over the world (at that time). As bad as things are in the US, we are not anywhere near that point. Almost exactly half of our 330,000,000 citizens hate Trump with fervor. We are a huge country with a huge and very diverse population of people will all range of ideologies. The exact opposite of 30s Germany.
3) Hitler was driven by VERY different motivations than Donald Trump. Hitler had a deep seeded belief that Jews were responsible for everything wrong in the world, and he viewed their extermination as a divine objective to be carried out as payback for the downfall of Germany, and he'd stop at nothing to get it. Hitler unfortunately was a very smart, calculating, and charismatic person bent on his goal, and wasn't driven by money or personal gain other than being in power. Through his speeches he was effectively able to control the entire population of Germany and get them all on board with his ideas.
Donald Trump is not that. He's quite obviously a buffoon who's first interest is money and being popular, he doesn't give a shit about ideology even though he may say so. He likes the hillbilly contingent cheering for him, the hats, the flags, and of course the money. He knows that the more extreme his speeches get, the louder the hillbillies will cheer. The more money he and his family will make. He doesn't have the smarts or the power over the population that Hitler did, even if you think he does.
There's a very clear distinction that you'd be wise to understand, and that is that Hitler was vastly more dangerous for vastly different reasons. Hitler was a psychopath with a clear, defined rage built up that he would stop at nothing to lay waste in the form of genocide. Unfortunately for the world, that happened at a time in Germany's history where all the stars were aligned for him to be able to take total control over a country on a micro and macro level. That is not the situation in the United States no matter how much you try to convince yourself of it.
Donald Trump is not a psychopath, he's a narcissistic
sociopath. Both are bad, but one is much, much worse and is an existential danger. Donald Trump has the ability to make things uncomfortable in the US, but we are lucky that he's a rank amateur when compared to the likes of Hitler. He's in it for the rallies and the hats and the money, and he does what it takes to rile the hillbillies up which happens to be the topics of immigration, gun control, the economy, what have you. If making immigration easier and increasing taxes were the things that would get the hillbillies waving their Trump flags and buying red hats, he'd do that. He's in it for the highest bidder. He doesn't care about ideology because he's for sale.
Hitler was not for sale, and he made it known through his actions. Whether you think so or not, Trump does not have the power to instantly make his military turn its weapons on the population and start bombing our own citizens. He doesn't have the power to round up all liberals and send them to gas chambers. He doesn't have the power to take over Canada.
So before you start slinging around the, "Welp, it's Hitler 2.0 now..." stuff, take note that it makes you sound exactly like the current crop of conservatives who think that if Harris got elected the country would immediately turn into Soviet communist Russia with no individual rights complete with gulags and banning of religion.
Don't be that guy.
