Donald Trump’s quick trip to absolute dictatorship
By Noel Wauchope
Comparisons are odious, particularly between Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler. I must be plain from the start, that these individuals have had completely different aims and ideology.
The comparisons I’m making here are just about methods of gaining absolute power. And here, I think, there are parallels. And we can learn, from Hitler, how Trump could well go about attaining dictatorship status – way faster than people realise.
Trump and Hitler do have this in common – a reckless ruthlessness about destroying institutions and crossing boundaries. And both had earlier associations with street violence – Hitler with his Brown Shirts, and the Beer Hall Putsch, and Trump, less obviously, with the Proud Boys and the Capitol attack on January 6th 2021.
Hitler became dictator by very quickly using legitimate political mechanisms, and Trump will be able to do the same.
Hitler, moving towards purging his movement of the Brown Shirts, gained much public support, and business interests saw him as a force to stop street violence, and a protector and support of property and business. Meanwhile, largely thanks to the genius of Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda machine flourished, exploiting the latest technology, – radio, and aircraft – “Hitler over Germany”. By 1933 the German economy was recovering, and Hitler’s success in elections did in fact drop, but his National Socialist Party still held a third of the seats in the Reichstag.
Here’s where it got interesting, and it all took just 7 and a half weeks.
30 January 1933 – Hitler was appointed Chancellor. The role of the Chancellor, while being symbolically like the role of the British Prime Minister, was in fact, quite limited. The real power was in the President. President von Hindenburg, bowing to pressure, was persuaded that Hitler could indeed be controlled, by giving him the status of Chancellor.
27 February 1933 – the German parliament (Reichstag) building burned down. Without going into the discussion on who caused the fire – it was the trigger for Hitler to persuade von Hindenburg to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree – Emergency Decree for the Protection of the German People, on 28 February, declaring a state of emergency, and abolishing most civil liberties, including the rights to speak, assemble, protest, and due process.
23 March 1933, Hitler proposed the Enabling Law to the Reichstag. This new law, passed on 24 March, gave Chancellor Hitler the power to rule by decree rather than passing laws through the Reichstag and the President. He was now effectively the dictator.
We could go on from there – listing Hitler’s dictatorial actions – National Socialists the only party permitted, trade unions disbanded. Any autonomous states lost those powers – officials appointed as state governors – and much, much more.
July 1934 – Hitler becomes “Fuehrer” – the finishing touch. With the death of President von Hindenburg, Hitler abolishes the now powerless position of “President”.
What has all this got to do with Trump?
Admittedly, the burning down of the Reichstag was a key factor, and we’re not expecting Capitol Hill to burn down. But the thing is that Hitler was at least a super-opportunist, even if the Nazis did not purposely cause this event. If it hadn’t been this event, probably something else could be triggered for a “state of emergency”. So, it would also be very beneficial to Trump- and save a lot of time, if some suitable “event” were to justify Trump, (also a super-opportunist) to declare emergency powers.
In the meantime, Trump is already working on removing the powers of the Department of Justice, and has various avenues open for him to take quick executive action. The President can issue executive orders. There are checks and balances, but these rely on the Supreme Court, and the Congress. So, Trump, with a majority in Congress has freedom – ‘I have an Article 2 where I have the right to do whatever I want as president’.
Trump’s plan for a radical reorganization of the executive branch starts with ending “the post-Watergate norm of Justice Department independence from White House political control.”
Trump will be very careful about which officials he appoints – due to constitutional “checks and balances”. He’d need to pick a compliant Acting Attorney General. The obstacles to be eliminated include an independent Justice Department, independent leadership in administrative agencies and an independent civil service. Trump’s plan would substitute loyalty to him for loyalty to the Constitution.” In 2020 Trump called for the “termination of … the Constitution.”
In the USA, theoretically, there are constraints on the President’s power. But, as in Germany in the 1930s, the leader has already arranged for the administration and every government department to be run by his sycophants.
Also, as in Hitler’s Germany, Trump has extraordinary influence over media, especially social media. Hitler had the brilliance of Goebbels to swamp the public with his lies and spin. Trump is almost one better – he does it all himself.
So – there are similarities between Hitler and Trump in the way to gain absolute power. There’s the opportunism, the clique of dedicated sycophants, the inspired exploitation of new technology, of new media, the reckless crossing of normal boundaries, and the background of violence, (with the potential for violence again).
The differences between them are striking. Hitler had a coherent almost mystical theory – involving war – to gain world domination for the master “Aryan” race, and to eliminate the Jews and other “Untermenschen”. To a large extent, Hitler’s close associates shared that dream, even if jostling for power between each other– Goebbels, Hess, Himmler, Goering, Speer, von Ribbentrop, Heydrich, Bormann. They more or less held to Hitler’s philosophy, and feared Hitler if they stepped out of line. Quite a few, though not all, stayed with Hitler until the very bitter end.
I can’t see Trump’s associates having that kind of dedication. From his previous presidency, there is a long list of former allies who turned against him.
Donald Trump seems to have no coherent theory or aim – other than to be super-powerful and rich, and take revenge on his opponents. He admires dictators, hates China, doesn’t like war, and fears nuclear bombs. If Trump has any philosophy at all, apart from him being at the top, it would be for a world economy dominated by American business. War is not Trump’s chosen method to win, but building up weaponry, and the threat of war – a sort of global bullying is his favoured method.
Trump’s top associates are currently dedicated to him – but are closely connected to billionaires, and not necessarily sharing philosophies. There’s Elon Musk, obsessed with the control of space, and the colonisation of Mars, John Bauer who devised the case for presidential absolute immunity from prosecution, Stephen Miller determinedly anti-immigrant, Fox News employee Pete Hegseth, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sceptic of public health, Dave Weldon, anti-abortion doctor. What they do seem to have in common is big egos, and rather questionable qualifications for the jobs that they’ll be getting.
So, unlike Hitler, Trump doesn’t seem to have a team dedicated to a single-minded cause. In the short run, things might look good for the new Republican administration, and even for the American public. Dictatorships can do that, for a bit – as the workers found, in the early years of the Hitler administration, and of the Mussolini one in Italy. But it’s anybody’s guess how the new Trump dictatorship will finally work out.
Photo credit: Alan / Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED)
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13 comments
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Phil Pryor -
John C -
Cool Pete -
leefe -
Canguro -
Cool Pete -
Andrew Smith -
Terence Mills -
Noel Wauchope -
Bert -
Terence Mills -
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Return to home pageMr. Wauchope surely knows that Hitler came to power in a minor position within a coalition with the conservative right wing. Von Papen and Hindenburg were supposedly hoping to use but control Hitler. Once in office, Hitler shuffled, but the Reichstag fire allowed him to attain ultimate power to suspend “criminal” or “dissident” elements, so that Otto Wel’s socialists, c. 95 seats, were suspended during crucial votes on the enabling act, and Hitler had a majority in a reduced overall vote, Manipulation worked. Later, the death of Hindenburg gave Hitler the amazingly powerful combined role of office in government, and he was Fuhrer. Schliecher, Goering, others, allowed the Weimar republic to, “legally”, commit suicide.
As for Trump, why is he alive? He has offended, people, offices, institutions, laws, decency, civilisation, agencies.
@Phil Pryor. Why is trump alive? Because the first assassin was a poor shot (unfortunately) and the second was caught before getting close enough to try. The third was caught during his planning stage. I’m sure there will be further attempts to remove the plague that is ‘con-man’.
Hitler and Trump are not as different as you might think. Trump spoke of “poisoning the blood,” and calls for mass deportations. Hitler didn’t start out that way. Both are vehemently anti-LGBTIQA!
… to eliminate the … “Untermenschen”.
There’s that, also. Der Pumpkinfuehrer is racist to the core; his rhetoric on deporting Latino immigrants and targeting Muslims and African Americans is not just playing to the base. He means every bit of it, regardless of the damage it will do to both USAnia and the people involved.
The Comparisons are odious maxim seemingly has relevancy… my mother used it as I recall, one of the few things that stuck in my memory from the awful years of early childhood, and on that common basis of young children unquestioningly accepting everything they’re told, I would parrot the expression whenever it seemed apt, until I didn’t.
It’s incorrect, of course, and inapt as an observation on affairs whether human or otherwise.
How else can one consider events, circumstances, phenomena, without entering into some sort of evaluative process; e.g. how does the soon to be returned to power Trump stack up against other presidents of that country? Or how did the LNP fare over their ten years in power compared to, say, the Hawke-Keating era, or the current Labor government.
Or in the natural world…we measure the current global indicators of the consequences of atmospheric and oceanic heating via reference to baseline statistics.
There’s still a lot to be said for folk wisdom and sayings, but they need to be considered for their usefulness and discarded if irrelevant.
The differences between Hitler and Trump aren’t as vast as you think. When Hitler came to power, Germany had lost the Rhineland and the Ruhr as part of the Versailles Peace Treaty and had a crippling reparations bill. Britain and France turned a blind eye to him taking those back. Hitler campaigned on Lebensraum which had to be conquered through military might. Trump is still talking about military might but not in an expansionist way.
Hitler didn’t start out as a genocidal dictator; his original plan had been to encourage Jews to leave Germany (Albert Einstein left in the year Hitler became chancellor) but he didn’t make it easy for them. It was after Reichkrystalnacht that Himmler and Goebbels encouraged swift and violent action and that was when Hitler started the genocidal Holocaust.
People need to remember that genocide doesn’t have to resemble Nazi Germany to be genocide. Howard was wrong when he claimed that there was no genocide here. There were no death camps; there were other forms.
Hitler attempted a coup de tat in 1923 and was convicted of treason and sentenced to five years imprisonment of which he served nine months. Trump was elected. lost the 2020 election and encouraged a coup, having exhausted legal means to serve two concurrent terms.
There are links, pre WWII Germany & post WWII Anglsophere, especially US (mainstream pre WWII; eugenics (see Madison Grant, JD Rockefeller & Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes), which is now manifested in Anglo (& Euro) white Christian nationalists, population controllers and the anti-immigrant lobby, targeting above median age voters et al..
Whiff of fossil fuels, greenwashing, deregulation etc. of Tanton Network behind the GOP which in the US also shares donors with fellow social-Darwinist faux ‘free market’ Atlas Koch Network (joint Heritage Foundation-Project2025); ‘Kochonomics’ was born of ‘segregation economist’ James Buchanan.
The latter like Tanton has flown under the radar…
Trump is not such a complex character. For those of you who followed the Godfather series, as has Trump, you will know that the Corleone family strived for legitimacy but it didn’t always work out so well – they tried Cuba in the pre-revolution days and later Las Vegas. They bought off the judges and the politicians and in those respects the Trump family have much in common with the Corleone family – they want to be where the influence is and close to the money tree and, importantly, above the law.
Bank-robber Willie Sutton When asked why he robbed banks, replied, “Because that’s where the money is.” The Trump family have gone one better, they have gone to the source of power, influence and money : Washington DC.
But are they legit, can they ever be accepted into polite company ? Michael Corleone was despairing when he said in Godfather III ‘Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in’ while he was trying to convert his mob empire into legitimate business, but is unable to do so due to the baggage he carried, like Trump.
The Trumps will always need, as did the Corleone family, loyal camp followers among the capos they appoint to run their organisation and protect the Don, some from within the family and others with demonstrated loyalty to their Godfather. That is currently playing out as the Don lines up his administration from his family compound at Mar-a-Lago and that is the seat of the problem.
Could make for a sequel by Mario Puzo and a movie for Scorsese but isn’t it all so predictable ? Eventually the law will catch up and the head of the family will be jailed or shot – we’ve all seen the movies !
Reply to “Cool Pete” Yes, in the early stages, both Hitler and Trump attempted a coup, and then want on to legal methods. But I still think of them as very different characters. Hitler built on a long-term European hatred of Jews, and made up his own pseudo-religious doctrine of Aryan world domination and removal of the Jews “the cause of all problems”. He set out his aims in Mein Kampf, and fostered in Germany a spiritual belief in Teutonic superiority, using art, media, music, architecture – much of this owing to the skills of Joseph Goebbels, Leni Riefenstahl, Albert Speer. And he believed in his own mystique. You might say that Hitler had some “principles”, even if we don’t like them. Trump, on the other hand, is refreshingly open to supporting whomsoever would give money to his campaign. If it’s for destroying the environment, gender-based discrimination, anti-abortion, anti- homosexuality, genocide of Palestinians, promoting extreme-right religions – fine – Trump believes in that cause (for now) You might say that Trump’s principle is flexibility. If the Gazans could give him $millions, I’m sure that Trump would support their cause. https://wauchope.substack.com/
Terrence, I feel that Trump may well die in office, he’s not the healthiest of specimens, and will avoid the legal challenges.
Just like Hitler, he will die before facing up to the mess he has created. Instead of a bullet from his own gun it may well be the diet of Big Macs
Bert
Why does Weekend at Bernie’s come to mind ? They would probably apply a little more fake tan and prop him up in the Oval Office to continue his rule of terror by AI algorithms.
Incidentally, I note that his son Eric is confused about tariffs and sanctions. He thinks that the Chinese will be hit with punitive sanctions when in fact it is the American consumer who will be hit with a consumption tax on imports – no dynasty in the making there – again the Corleones analogy : Freddo.
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