Why Trump is not ‘literally Hitler’

A decade ago, I spent some time in Germany with an English historian whose field of study was the Second World War, the Nazis and Adolf Hitler. He and I travelled together around Munich, where he explained how Hitler first came to prominence in the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. Later, we went to Obersalzberg and toured the Eagle’s Nest, Hitler’s mountain retreat in the Bavarian Alps. Over lunch in the cafeteria at the Dachau concentration camp (yes, there is a café with outdoor seating there now), my guide provided a detailed analysis of Hitler and his personality, how he actually functioned on a daily basis and how he dealt with domestic protests.

I thought about all this again recently, when a video emerged last week of US president Donald Trump and his White House entourage being confronted by activists from the radical feminist group, Code Pink, at a steakhouse in Washington, DC. The protesters, who had camped out at a neighbouring table in anticipation of the president’s arrival, shouted ‘Trump is the Hitler of our time’, ‘Trump is literally Hitler’ and ‘Free Palestine’. Trump stood opposite them, bemused, before telling his security to ‘Get them out of here’. After a couple of awkward moments they were escorted out of the restaurant by members of what was presumably the Secret Service. No one was arrested or charged.

I reflected on what my guide had told me about Hitler all those years ago, and imagined what the Führer might have done if his own dinner had been interrupted by a group of protesters. It seems that if ever there was an episode that proved that Trump was not the ‘literal Hitler’ of our time, that dinner confrontation was it.

Had the same inconvenience occurred to Hitler at the zenith of his power, his first order would have been for SS bodyguards to take the protesters to secret jails. Would they then have been sent to concentration camps? Not even. Their imprisonment would not have been long. They would have been interrogated by the Gestapo, which would have involved torture for perhaps 24 hours. Following the torture, no trial. The fortunate ones would have been lined up and shot to death. The less fortunate would have been paraded, perhaps naked, in a public space – somewhere like DC’s Lafayette Square, except with gallows. There, they would have been garrotted, probably with piano wire. When all the prisoners were dead, the bodies would have been removed from the gallows and incinerated, before their ashes scattered – or dumped – at an anonymous location. They would have been sure to leave no trace whatsoever of the protesters.

All this would have been filmed, so Hitler and his inner circle could enjoy the footage later on over tea and cakes. Although television was not a mass medium in the Third Reich, if it had been, the whole spectacle likely would have been televised, too.

The retaliation would not have ended there. The Gestapo would have summarily rounded up friends and family of the protesters, as well as anyone else mentioned during their torture. Those ‘collaborators’ would have been tortured themselves. Very likely, they too would soon cease to exist. That is more or less how Hitler would have handled the affair.

Compare this with what we saw last week. The protesters were able to confront Trump – he even acknowledged them – before they were sent on their way. Headlines, but no violence, bloodshed or arrests.

The most obvious point of all to make in this counterfactual is that there were not many protests in Nazi Germany. People were too scared, and understandably so. Protesters were killed, whereas in America they are protected.

So the next time someone accuses Trump of being the ‘Hitler of our time’, remember the Code Pink steakhouse episode. Some people may interpret this observation as an apologia or even a paean to Trump, but it is neither. It is merely objective evidence of the difference between Hitler’s totalitarian state and America, a democratic republic. Code Pink, or for that matter any citizen, may view Trump as a megalomaniac authoritarian and a narcissistic, vulgar control freak. Which he may well be, and we all have a constitutional right to say so. But under no circumstances is he ‘literally Hitler’, any more than you, I or his critics are.

Cory Franklin’s The Covid Diaries 2020-2024: Anatomy of a Contagion As It Happened, is now available on Amazon in Kindle and book form.