Donald Trump issued today perhaps the most factual statement of his 2016 today, when he stated that comparisons to Hitler were “terrible.”
Factually, that is correct! Donald Trump is not Hitler. Even if Hitler escaped his bunker in Germany in 1945, he would be 127 now, probably not fluent in English, and unlikely to campaign with the kind of vigor we are seeing from Donald Trump.
That clears it up. Not even the best makeup artist in the world could pull that trick.
But is Donald Trump Hitler-esque, in that he’s a strongman inspiring a legion of fanatics who if he takes office will destroy a once great Republic?
Lots of people think so! But not Trump. Responding to criticism that a rally of his featured a Nazi salute, Trump said comparisons to the Third Reich were unfounded. From CNN:
Donald Trump on Tuesday addressed criticism of a new practice at his rallies that has been compared to the “Heil” salute from Nazi Germany, dismissing the controversy as “ridiculous” before saying he would look into ending it.
“I don’t know about the Hitler comparison. I hadn’t heard that, but it’s a terrible comparison. I’m not happy about that certainly,” Trump said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
The controversy stems from the practice of Trump asking his voters to raise their right hands and swear they are going to vote for him. That’s Hitler? Heck, he doesn’t even know who Hitler is.
“Honestly until this phone call, I didn’t know it was a problem,” he added. “That this would be brought up this morning, I’m surprised to hear it.”
Asked if he would stop asking his supporters to invoke a symbol that can inflame such passions, Trump equivocated.
“Well, I think it’s ridiculous, I mean we’re having such a great time,” Trump said. “Sometimes we’ll do it for fun, and they’ll start screaming at me, ‘do the swear-in, do the swear-in!’ ”
“I mean I’d like to find out that that’s true, but I would certainly look into it, because I don’t want to offend anybody. But I can tell you that it’s been amazingly received, but I will certainly look into that.”
“I say jokingly, ‘Raise your hand if you swear to endorse me,’ ” he said. “The entire place is practically laughing and having a good time. They’re raising their hands in the form of a vote, not in the form of a salute.”
Well, that settles it.
I’d say all this is a bit overblown but think about this: Not even Hitler was compared to Hitler. And that guy was Hitler.
So it’s pretty bad to be compared to him. All the fucking time.