I used Perchance AI last night to make the above illustrations. As I was lying in bed before getting up I thought of the analogy of the Titantic and how its builders intended to build a luxury liner that was unsinkable. Then I though of the line about what the Founding Fathers had given the nation widely attributed to Ben Franklin: “a republic, if you can keep it.”
Krugman starts off slowly writing about Trump’s tarrifs, deportations, and the economy. Then he builds to what I planned to write about. He writes:
Unfortunately, one possible effect of the bad economic news may be to induce MAGA to put the real Project 2025 — the plot to destroy American democracy — on an accelerated schedule.
Or as I think of it, I don’t think we’re in Hungary anymore.
He goes on to explain how Viktor Orban took a gradualist approach to destroying democracy in Hungary. noting that the ruling party “had the luxury of time because until recently the party remained quite popular with the Hungarian public.”
Then he wrote:
It's now clear, by contrast, that Trump and MAGA don’t have the luxury of time. Trump’s approval has already cratered. He inherited an economy with low unemployment and subdued inflation, but is now presiding over a weakening job market and will soon face a burst of inflation, with nobody but himself to blame. He may manage to bully government statisticians into cooking the books and making the numbers look good, but that’s harder than it looks. And even if the official numbers say everything is great, nobody will believe it.
So if Trump and MAGA want to hold on to power, they’ll have to do so in the face of low public approval and poor economic performance.
What does “quickly and blatantly mean? Krugman concludes as follows:
Indeed, as CNN reported the other day, Republicans are trying in multiple ways to, in effect, rig the midterm elections. Their actions include a plan for an extreme, mid-decade gerrymandering in Texas that could cost Democrats multiple House seats; attempts to interfere in voting procedures, for example by banning states from accepting mail-in ballots after election day and forcing states to require proof of citizenship. Much of this is clearly unconstitutional, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
And what if these actions aren’t enough? Remember, Trump supporters, with his clear encouragement, already tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The important point is that right now Trump has immense power, thanks in large part to the cowardice of many of the institutions that should be holding him in check. But he’s also rapidly bleeding support, in large part because he’s completely failing to deliver on his economic promises.
That combination makes this an extremely dangerous moment.
These are Krugman's concluding sentences:
The oppostite of being soft is being hard. What could this look like less than Trump declaring martial law and using the armed forces to overthrow democracy?
If he tries to do this the only hope for saving democracy that I can see is that patriots in the military say a “hard no.” I will leave it to you to imagine how this woud play out.
It is instructive to compare Trump’s position, not just to Orban’s, but to Hitler’s in the late 1930’s. Orban took the slow route to conquest of just one country. Hitler, who already had an iron grip on Germany, mounted a successful juggernaut to conquer Europe.
Could Trump accomplish what Hitler did by mounting a blitzkrieg to take over not other free nations, but “just” the United States?
My partner read the book, “All the Light We Cannot See.” When I told her there was a new mini-series based on the book she was eager to see it. Over the past few days we watched it. I keep flashing to scenes from the show whenever I think of what Trump is doing to the country.
The movie flashes between Germany and a small seaside town in France.
This could be one of many fictional, or based on fact, account of the horrors of Hitler and the Nazi regime. It happens to be the one I most recently became immersed in.
I won’t go into the actual storyline. You can skim the Wikipedia page to see this and hopefully decide to read the book, watch the mini-series, or both if you haven’t already done so.
There are two parts to the storyline that I keep thinking about. One is how a German in his late teens, an orphan, who was a radio genius was recruited to be a member of a special army unit to be used as a radio specialist. Before he could be admitted to the training academy a Josef Mengele-like doctor had to determine whether of not he had any “Jewish blood” in him. Of course without modern DNA testing, doing this was decidedly unscientific, but suffice to say there would have been no story if it was determined that he was Jewish since a major portion of the plot was about him. Radio, the media of the day, played a big part in the story. (I shouldn’t have to point out how, in a different way, television and the internet play a huge role in Trump’s story.)
You can see how this made me think of Trump and his demonization of immigrants. They have become the Jews of today when it comes to living their lives in fear.
The other part of the story that jumped off the screen every time it happened were the depictions of the real and feigned worship of Hitler. The German officers ended every other sentence with Heil Hitler, sometimes with the Nazi salute and sometimes not. In their presence French citizens always had to pretend allegiance to the Führer by ending whatever they said to the Nazi with the words “heil Hitler.”
I’ve been thinking that if Trump’s name, his last name or even his first name, had the right sound to it, by now we’d be hearing a version of Heil Hitler. Obviously “heil Trump” wouldn’t be used since it isn’t English and would be an admission that Trump was Hitler incarnate. The word "Heil" in German means "hail" or "to salute."
I looked up synonyms for hail and salute and the only one that sounded like it could be used for Trump as heil was used for Hitler was “praise.” This doesn’t have the euphonious ring to it as “Heil Hitler.” It is, however, the best I could come up with. I don’t think we’ll actually hear “praise Trump” emanating from the mouths of Trump supporters or those who may at some point be faced with their wrath.
Trump doesn’t have anything like the arm raised salute but he does have a hat.
In a way it would be much simpler for those who want to curry favor with Trump to do so by uttering just two words everytime they are either in his presence or talking about him. Instead they have to try to outdo each other by lavishing praise on him.
ADDENDUM:
Trump and Hitler have personality similarities and differences. I haven’t seen reports that Hitler manifested the kind of personal narcissism and need to be worshipped when meeting with his aides which Trump does. I have’t read anything saying that he engaged in the braggadocio which we see with Trump. I assume Hitler got satisfaction when he spoke to cheering crowds of Germans, though perhaps not as much as Trump does.
There are many significant similarities between the two of them. A major one is a callous disregard for human suffering. Hitler may not have taken personal pleasure in knowing how much pain he was inflicting on his chosen enemies as Trump does. Trump can, in many ways, be considered a clinical sadist. My impression of Hitler is that he wouldn’t fit this defintion.
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Hitler needed two things to accomplish what he did.
These were a loyal military and the support of the majority of German citizens.
We don’t know at present how far Trump can go in his quest to turn the country into a ruthless dictatorship where his enforcers aren’t just armed federal agents, but also the active duty military.
We haven’t seen non-compliance with his orders and dictates being punished by the military in Nazi SS style.
It is possible that there is a line Trump can’t cross before enough elements of the military say either a soft “no” or a hard “no” to thwart him. A soft “no” would be telling him that there were orders they would not follow. A hard “no” would be implied with such a soft “no.”
If it came to it this would be implemented by an actual coup where Trump was formally arrested or just physically removed from the White House (having the football taken from him of course). A hard “no” would involve tanks not parading down Constitution Avenue, but turning onto the White House lawn.
Instead of Vance being installed as president the military would install temporary leaders until the country, which probably would be reeling with possibly violent pro-Trump protests, could be stabilized. At some point the military would be in charge of free elections.
What the military might do is a known unknown.
What we do know about Trump is that he does not have the majority of the country behind him the way Hitler did. This is why prognosticators are envisioning a second civil war where Americans take up arms against each other. This is another scenario which could lead to the military taking over, not on one side or the other, but to stabilize the country.
Now to the question in my title: What did Hitler have that Trump doesn't?
Hitler was 56 years old when he died. During his ascension to power he was a young man. He had youth. He had all his mental faculties intact. Not having social media to look at, I assume he wasn’t up in the wee hours of the morning obesessing over personal grudges, for example, against his predecessors Kurt von Schleicher and Paul von Hindenburg.
Trump is now 79 years old. His cognition appears to be if not impaired at least suspect.
Next year he obviously will be 80. This is a milestone birthday. It is sometimes called “The Big Eight-Oh” (I’m 81 so I know how it feels and since I live in a senior community I know how others react to being kind of offcially old just because of this number).
I thought of this just looking at the subtitle of Amanda Marcotte’s column in Salon this morning:
Here’s an excerpt showing the highlighted portion above the text:
His legs swelled so much recently that the White House even admitted the self-described “perfect physical specimen” has been diagnosed with a vein condition. But there’s also the visible general decline. Though he’s as loud-mouthed as always, Trump speaks more slowly, and his already tiny vocabulary has shrunk to the point where, in denying the provenance of a naked woman doodle he reportedly sent to his pal Epstein, Trump said, “I never wrote a picture in my life.” (This, too, is a lie.)
For MAGA influencers, the pressing knowledge that Trump won’t be around forever must be frightening. It’s not unusual for fascist movements to be incoherent in their ideology or goals. But with MAGA, it’s especially pronounced because Trump so thoroughly dominates and defines them through a cult of personality. If the movement is to survive, however, they need something other than Trump worship as a central organizing force. The best that most MAGA influencers have come up with is conspiracism. Spinning non-stop liesabout secret cabals conspiring against red America keeps their audiences hooked, and it also isolates them from reality-based society. That combination of nuttiness and alienation is their best bet for continuing the MAGA cult after the leader dies or ages out of his capacity to control them.
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I had no idea what to write about this morning until I saw the chyron on MSNBC’s “The Weekend” when the panel was gleefully talking about various setbacks which Trump was having in implementing his agenda.
The word that jumped out was “struggling.” The agenda may be “struggling” in the sense that it hasn’t been implemented in its entirety the way Hitler took over all of Europe is a 54 day blitzkrieg. Trump’s army doesn’t have tanks, aircraft, artillery, and millions of armed troops (ICE is a pipsqueak force in comparison). Still, considering what Trump’s army accomplished in just over 100 days, he has done a damn good job with the resources he had. Even Hitler would probably admire him.
Sure, there have been some bumps in the road. In his arroagance, some of these may have taken him by surprise. Certainly, a number pissed him off while others he shrugged off. From lawsuits to Springsteen to stock prices to poll numbers to DOGE not delivering as promised, they all add up to a few flys at a picnic which you hoped to be absolutely perfect.
Trump has henchmen with fly zappers to deal with these pesky annoyances. I had a chance to use the zapper I bought a few weeks ago and it worked, although the odor of a fast-fried fly was noxious. The smell disappated in a couple of minutes and was replaced by the savory aroma of chicken being cooked. So it has been with Trump moving past the blowback from his setbacks. He moves on to the sweet smell of success.
Moving along in their discussion about politics, the MSNBC panel added James Carvelle and they were all smiles when they talked about Democratic hopes for 2026.
Their optimism springs eternal. For example, how they celebrate the struggles the Trump adminstation is experiencing, they can’t admit that the country is well and truly fucked. They are assuming that even Democratics winning both houses of Congress in the midterms will make a difference. By then there’s a good chance Trump will be ignoring Congress altogther.
The same goes for court rulings which go against him.
Back to the Nazi 54 day blitzkreig, if Trump is ever able to use our military to take over the country we are well and truly fucked.
On another but related subject, I occasionally read The Contrarian, a Substack I had such high hopes for I paid $500 to be a Founding Member of when Jennifer Rubin and Norm Eisen started it.
Now they are so awash in what I see as false optimism and their celebrating their victories in court that I hardly ever read it. I can’t figure out what they fancy themselves to be what with their Pet of the Week and their weekly recipes.
I did check out “How YOU Helped Knock Musk Out of DC–& of Politics” by Norm Eisen. Eisen often is on MSNBC talking about cases against the Trump initiatives which he and his associates won in court. Jennifer Rubin is also a frequent MSNBC guest.
That Substack begins:
The end of this week brought two of the most dramatic scenes yet in the decline and fall of Elon Musk—and of his and Donald Trump's failed DOGE effort to remake government. Despite all the damage that they have done (and that Trump will continue to do) we should take a beat to appreciate the milestone. It speaks to the power of the patriotic opposition—and of the role you’ve played, dear Contrarians.
The first of those two dramatic scenes came on Thursday in a New York courtroom, where a Perry Mason moment took down DOGE. My colleagues and I had sued over DOGE agents running rampant through sensitive government data at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), illegally accessing data about tens of millions of current and former federal employees, contractors, and job applicants. We made that case on Thursday in what the press accurately called a “mini-trial” of DOGE. The highlight was our almost 3-hour cross-examination of the administration's main witness (grilled by my colleague, Andrew Warren). We elicited several concessions: the witness all but admitted OPM was not following the law in granting access to DOGE!
Below are the comments I added:
Is your arm hurting from trying to pat yourself on the back? Nobody filing lawsuits helped knock Musk out of DC. If anybody did this it was those who boycotted Tesla and those who unloaded their Tesla stock. Basically, though, Musk knocked himself out of DC by failing to fulfill his promise of ginormous savings DOGE would bring in.
…and…
In the first two paragraphs Eisen compares a court victory to a Perry Mason moment... cringe... and then there's more self-congratulation. The YOU of the title is how being a Contrarian YOU helped in ways that aren't clear except through your contributions. By the way, the reason you can read this is that I am one of them and thus can comment, and I am one who paid to be a founding Contrairian at that.
I don't totally dismiss his lawsuits and those from others, but I see them more as slowing down the Trump blitzkrieg. Trump still hasn't decided to declare himself a total monarch who can ignore court rulings which go against him with impunity.
I have critiqued this Substack's contributors before for being purveyors of optimism unlike those savvy truth tellers like Timothy Snyder, Thom Hartmann , Sabrina Haake
and others who are trying to sound the alarm that we are as far down the road to dictatorship as the Nazis were when they invaded Poland and were poised to take over Europe which they did in 54 days.
It took four years until the Allies were strong enough to mount D-Day. As for the Perry Mason comparison, fans know that in the TV series he only lost three cases. His clients are always innocent and when he gets them off they go free. When Norm Eisen and others go after Trump, who is always guilty, and they are victorious he never goes free. His illegal and/or unconstitutional actions may be stalled by the side of the road but he has his own personal auto club in the waiting whether a higher court or the Supreme Court who will eventually give him a jump start and he'll be embarked on his juggernaut to destroy democracy again. He'll keep doing this until he's strong enough to ignore courts altogther. See: Law and Justice in the Third Reich -
Oh yeah, tide turns, so many optimists, so few realists. It hurts to face the fact that no tide has turned. This is just a series of setbacks like a flat tire on a few Stryker 8-wheel military vehicles in Trump's blitzkrieg to impose his dictatorship.
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