Nazi Germany 1933 and MAGA America 2025

Adolf Hitler’s first year in power offers a reminder of the damage that was  done by one man who rose to power legally following a series of political and economic crises in Germany,  Hitler was the leader of the Nazi Party, which was radically right-wing, antisemitic, anticommunist, and antidemocratic.  He falsely claimed that Jews and Communists were to blame for all of Germany’s problems.

Hitler didn’t immediately become a dictator.  Rather, he manipulated the democratic political system to destroy Germany’s democracy and create a dictatorship.  He took power in January 1933, and within months, he had transformed the independent press into a propaganda tool for the regime.  The Nazis began book burnings in May that targeted “un-German” books, eliminated independent thought, and “purified” culture.  The Editors Law in October required editors and journalists to be registered with the state, excluding Jews and those with opposing views.

In 1933, Hitler also introduced police power that was independent of judicial controls, which permitted the arrest—without judicial review—of real and potential opponents of the regime.  In one of the earliest antisemitic laws, Hitler purged Jewish and socialist judges and lawyers, and established special courts to try politically sensitive cases.  The Enabling Act in March 1933 allowed Hitler to issue laws without the consent of Germany’s parliament, creating the foundation for the Nazification of German society. By the middle of the year, the democracy of the Weimar Republic had been transformed into the police state of the Third Reich.

Donald Trump is not Hitler, but it is noteworthy that his family invested heavily in hiding its German origins.  Trump’s father, Fred Trump, tried to conceal the fact that he was the son of a German immigrant and tried to pass himself off as Swedish. He feared the anti-German sentiment in the United States after World War Two and wanted to avoid offending his Jewish customers.  In the “Art of the Deal,” Trump reaffirmed the myth of his family’s origins, writing that his grandfather came to America “from Sweden as a child.”  He didn’t embrace his German heritage until 1999, when he noted that “Trump Tower, 69 stories” was a long way from Kallstadt,” referring to his grandfather’s hometown.  Trump Tower is actually a 58-story skyscraper, and this is just one example of the lies that Trump indulges to make himself and his buildings larger than they really are.

Trump has not been as ruthless or aggressive as Hitler, but it is noteworthy that he has targeted the same institutions: media, courts, judges, law firms, higher education, and the organizations of state security.  Like Hitler, he targeted museums and libraries; not even the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian Institution could escape his ire.

The Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been weaponized; the Pentagon and the intelligence community have been politicized; the Department of Homeland Security has turned Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into a secret police force.  The fact that ICE police wear masks and don’t identify themselves is chilling in a democracy.  The current occupation of Minneapolis, where ICE forces outnumber the local police, and now Maine is similarly chilling.

Trump’s use of force is unprecedented.  With Stephen Miller (Trump’s Joseph Goebbels) in command, Trump has federalized the National Guard; targeted civilians who pose no threat to security; ordered military troops into U.S. cities in Blue States; invaded Venezuela and arrested its president; and bombed Iran without consulting Congress.

Trump’s administration is currently trying to completely dismantle the Department of Education, and has rolled back diversity programs and civil rights protections in higher education.  He has undermined research at these institutions, curbed global education, and threatened serious limits on public funding.  Federal protections for gender identity and LGBTQ rights in higher education have been significantly restricted.  Too many universities have been restricting the right to teach in the classroom in order to please Trump.

It’s important to remember that Caesar, Napoleon, and Hitler didn’t seize power illegally. They were introduced to a republic form of government that was used as a base for their transgressions.  Trump was elected, but the Congress has been neutralized; the Supreme Court has been derelict in its duties to restrict the powers of the president; and Trump has been left to pursue power at home and abroad in his struggle for absolute power.  As he warned, the only force that can limit him is “my own mind.”

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