Images of masked federal agents surrounding vehicles, entering workplaces, waiting outside courthouses, and taking people into custody have led some Americans to compare Immigration and Customs Enforcement to the organizations that enforced Adolf Hitler’s rule. The comparisons usually invoke the SS, the Gestapo, the Sicherheitsdienst, or the brownshirted SA. To some people, the resemblance seems...
Comparisons between Donald Trump’s political movement and Nazi Germany often focus almost entirely on Trump himself. Is Trump like Hitler? Does his rhetoric resemble fascism? Could the United States become an authoritarian state? Those questions matter, but they can obscure one of history’s most important lessons: Hitler did not transform Germany alone. He required ideological architects who...
Comparing the Rise of Nazism in Germany With Trump’s Rise in the United States Comparisons between Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler provoke unusually intense reactions. Some people believe that invoking Hitler is hysterical, offensive, or historically ignorant. Others argue that refusing to examine the resemblance is itself dangerous because authoritarian movements are easiest to resist before they...
