Lately, I’ve seen a number of commentators and private citizens who want to dismiss arguments that Donald Trump is like Adolf Hitler or Hitleresque. In this crucial time when our very democracy and possibly the fate of the world is at stake, I feel obliged to respond and point out the many ways in which in fact Trump behaves like Hitler and other current and historical tyrants. Ten basic examples are below:
1. He has attempted to take over all aspects of the government, including the judiciary, and has done his best to silence any opposition by personal attacks, intimidation, and threats of incarceration.
2. He has done his best (and will continue) to suppress the media and curtail freedom of speech in academia and within the press, and, if necessary, declare a national emergency or use the Insurrection Act in order to forcefully stifle dissent.
3. By abruptly canceling foreign aid, he has cost the lives of millions of people, and many more will die due to his cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, all of which amounts to genocide, albeit by the pen.
4. Like other despotic leaders such as Hitler, Stalin, Putin, and many others, he is a megalomaniac who lacks vision and a moral compass and any compassion or regard for other people.
5. In attempting to interfere with and control the midterm and future elections, he clearly has no regard for democracy, freedom and constitutional law.
6. In that he is surrounded by oligarchs and captains of industry who are invested in power, his main goal, like other authoritarians, is to keep and maintain his own power, no matter what the consequences are or who is hurt.
7. Like other tyrants, he is bent on self-aggrandizement at the expense of human well-being and the entire planet.
8. Like Hitler, he lies and bases policy on perpetuating the big lies and promotes his tyranny by proclaiming that his rule is divinely inspired and by aligning himself with far-right groups.
9. Like Hitler, aided by rich industrialists and oligarchs, in his pursuit of power he seeks to conquer and acquire other sovereign territories, in this case Canada and Greenland.
10. Like Hitler, he sees himself as above the law and normal morality while he ruthlessly attacks minorities and disabled groups and, in the name of immigration reform, puts men, women and children in detention camps where many die due to unsafe and unsanitary conditions.
Frank J. Page, Salt Lake City