Trump’s Reich
Surely, I thought, this isn’t true.
Not even the Trump-MAGA crowd would boast that one result of Trump’s election would be a “Unified Reich.”
“Reich.” Like Hitler’s Third Reich.
But there it was, on Trump’s Truth Social account, among messages flashing across the screen: “Trump wins!!”, “Economy booms!” and – yes – a headline with the words “Unified Reich.”
After an outcry, it was taken down.
After 18 hours.
Trump’s spokesperson said Trump never saw it and a staffer did it by mistake.
Make no mistake: It was no mistake.
It was one more signal to the heart of Trump-MAGA darkness.
Trump talks of being “dictator for a day,” claims immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” and promises “retribution” for his political opponents, whom he calls “vermin.”
Steve Bannon, Trump’s 2016 campaign manager and White House strategist, said this about people who fear Trump will be a dictator:
“We mock your fear, we want you to fear. There’s going to be accountability [when Trump becomes president]. We are taking apart the administrative state. We’re going to destroy the deep state and we’re going to hold everybody responsible that put this republic in the situation it’s in today.”
Far-right conservatives long have longed for a strongman, “a man on horseback,” an authoritarian leader who would whip the country into shape and whip up on sniveling liberals, smarty-pants professors, effete intellectuals, nosy reporters and noisy protesters.
Last May, I visited Mauthausen death camp near Linz, the Austrian city where Hitler grew up. I wrote about it: “Revisiting Evil.”
I always envisioned concentration camps as being hidden away in dark woods.
But Mauthausen sits atop a rolling hillside in a Sound of Music landscape. It overlooks well-kept farms and a picturesque village.
The Austrians who lived there knew what was going on at the camp. They gleefully helped guards chase down escapees.
Austrians are civilized, educated, cultivated people.
But they turned into savages under an evil dictator.
We can do better.
We can stop this darkness – this year, in this election.
A Unified America can stop Trump’s Unified Reich.
Trump’s Reich
Surely, I thought, this isn’t true.
Not even the Trump-MAGA crowd would boast that one result of Trump’s election would be a “Unified Reich.”
“Reich.” Like Hitler’s Third Reich.
But there it was, on Trump’s Truth Social account, among messages flashing across the screen: “Trump wins!!”, “Economy booms!” and – yes – a headline with the words “Unified Reich.”
After an outcry, it was taken down.
After 18 hours.
Trump’s spokesperson said Trump never saw it and a staffer did it by mistake.
Make no mistake: It was no mistake.
It was one more signal to the heart of Trump-MAGA darkness.
Trump talks of being “dictator for a day,” claims immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” and promises “retribution” for his political opponents, whom he calls “vermin.”
Steve Bannon, Trump’s 2016 campaign manager and White House strategist, said this about people who fear Trump will be a dictator:
“We mock your fear, we want you to fear. There’s going to be accountability [when Trump becomes president]. We are taking apart the administrative state. We’re going to destroy the deep state and we’re going to hold everybody responsible that put this republic in the situation it’s in today.”
Far-right conservatives long have longed for a strongman, “a man on horseback,” an authoritarian leader who would whip the country into shape and whip up on sniveling liberals, smarty-pants professors, effete intellectuals, nosy reporters and noisy protesters.
Last May, I visited Mauthausen death camp near Linz, the Austrian city where Hitler grew up. I wrote about it: “Revisiting Evil.”
I always envisioned concentration camps as being hidden away in dark woods.
But Mauthausen sits atop a rolling hillside in a Sound of Music landscape. It overlooks well-kept farms and a picturesque village.
The Austrians who lived there knew what was going on at the camp. They gleefully helped guards chase down escapees.
Austrians are civilized, educated, cultivated people.
But they turned into savages under an evil dictator.
We can do better.
We can stop this darkness – this year, in this election.
A Unified America can stop Trump’s Unified Reich.