Trump Is ‘Just Going Full-On Hitler Talking About Vermin’
Former president used fascist rhetoric in Veterans’ Day speech in New Hampshire
Figures across the political spectrum are condemning in the harshest possible terms rhetoric by Donald Trump over the weekend, in which he called political opponents and others “vermin,” saying that the former president is echoing the language used by the evil fascists of World War II.
Trump, in a Veterans Day speech in New Hampshire, pledged to “root out … the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country,” the latest in a growing line of increasingly incendiary comments about his political opponents heading into a 2024 election in which he is the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination.
The remarks drew immediate fire.
“He's just going full-on Hitler,” Joe Scarborough, the former Republican congressman from Florida and co-host of MSNBC's Morning Joe, said on-air.
On the opposite side of the political spectrum, Robert Reich, a prominent progressive influencer and a US labor secretary during Bill Clinton’s presidency, posted a comment on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“On Veterans Day, Trump pledged to ‘root out’ his political opponents, saying that they, ‘live like vermin within the confines of our country.’ Make no mistake, this is the dehumanizing language of fascism,” Reich wrote.
Trump’s use of such rhetoric absolutely should be taken seriously, according to conservative commentator Charlie Sykes, founder of the online publication, The Bulwark.
“Donald Trump is escalating his rhetoric on a regular basis. You would think that having wrapped up the nomination he might try to be more a bit more reasonable move toward the center. In fact, what he's saying is no, what -- what I really want to do is, you know, I am an authoritarian, I am an election denier, and this is what I plan to do to the federal government, to the constitutional norms, and I think we need to take him deadly seriously on that.”
That Trump is willing to use such despicable language should be what the election ought to be about, said Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Jon Meacham.
“Well, here we go. Because to call your opponent's vermin, to dehumanize them, is to not only open the door, but to walk through the door toward the most ghastly kinds of crimes, and gives me no pleasure to start off a Monday morning talking about this, but I have a small plea to all of my Republican friends, and I live in Tennessee so that's redundant, right? I got Republican friends. For all of those folks, think, again, think anew about this,” Meacham said Monday. “This is not about the age of the incumbent president. This is not about your opinion of the incumbent vice president of the United States. This is about your candidates’ front-runner — your party's front runner — who is in fact now as clearly as you could do it, is putting American democracy, human rights, the rule of law, below his own ambition.”
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