I AM YOUR VOICE!
I AM YOUR RETRIBUTION!
I ALONE CAN FIX IT!
Well, Doctor, what have we got:
- a Republic, or
- a Monarchy?
A Republic, if you can keep it.
— Mrs Powel of Philada & Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 90), Constitutional Convention, 1787.
America for Americans.
The government must not interfere with business.
Reduce taxes.
Our national debt is something shocking. …
What this country needs is a businessman for President.
— John Ford (1894 1973), Stagecoach, 1939.
When somebody's the President of the United States, the authority is total.
And that's the way it's got to be.
— Donald Trump (1946)
In the Trump era, there’s no room for disagreement.
The era where the senators, the members of Congress, asserted their prerogatives, their power, would stand up to a president, seems largely to be over in the United States today.
— Stephen Schmidt (1970)
Demogogue:
A political agitator appealing to popular wishes or prejudices.
— The Oxford Reference Dictionary
Even after the attack that would leave five people dead and many injured, 147 Republican members of Congress stood with the president, voting to overturn the election results.
Mike Pence (1959) [48th Vice President of the United States]:
President Donald Trump has been fighting for you, and now it’s our turn to fight for him.
Donald Trump (1946):
All I want to do is this:
I just want to find 11,780 votes.
So what are we going to do here, folks?
I only need 11,000 votes. …
Give me a break.
(Phone call to Brad Raffensperger, 29th Secretary of State of Georgia)
We will never give up.
We will never concede.
It doesn’t happen.
You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.
Evan Osnos (1976) [Staff Writer, The New Yorker]:
[Donald Trump] came out of [the first impeachment] convinced, not only that he had total impunity … but that he also had the support of almost every Republican leader in Congress behind him. …
It was a kind of moment of permission.
[All] the guardrails fell away.
He had nothing to be afraid of … he could do whatever he wanted.
(Michael Kirk, Trump's American Carnage, PBS Frontline, 2021)
Michael Kirk & Mike Wiser:
The Trump strategy:Using conflict and outrage, Donald Trump had galvanized an angry base and won over the reluctant Republican establishment. …
- Make it TV drama.
- Play to the base. …
Charlie Sykes (1954) [Conservative Commentator]:
[It’s] not so much that Trump took over the Republican Party; it’s that the Republican Party completely capitulated to him.
They’re all united in believing that in order to survive politically, and not lose in a primary, they have to stick as close to him as possible.
Even when he puts out racist tweets, you cannot criticize him in public.
Even when he engages in the most reckless behavior, you cannot break with him in public. …
Peter Baker (1967):
He is about division.
His presidency is predicated on that.
He wants division; he craves it.
He enjoys finding seams and driving right into them.
There's no fight he doesn't want to be part of, and there are plenty of fights he'd like to start.
The fight is the goal.
[There's] no reward, from his point of view, in unity. …
Frank Luntz (1962) [Republican Strategist]:
We were far more divided in the Civil War, far more divided during the Great Depression.
But we've always had hope in the future.
And that hope, we're losing it with this division. …
Joshua Green (1972):
Nunberg had realized that this issue of immigration has real salience with Republican voters.
The problem they had was they couldn’t get Trump to stay on topic.
Famously short attention span.
And so Sam Nunberg came up with this idea, essentially a mnemonic device to keep Trump focused on the issue of immigration.
Sam Nunberg (1981) [Political Consultant]:
So I said:Well, why don’t we say you’re going to build a wall, because it’s bigger.(Michael Kirk, America’s Great Divide: From Obama to Trump, PBS Frontline, WGBH, 2020)
You’re going to build a wall, and you’ll get Mexico to pay for it.
The Good Old Days of American Fascism
I love the old days.
You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this?
They'd be carried out on a stretcher, folks. …
I'd like to punch him in the face …
If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you?
Seriously. …
I promise you I will pay for the legal fees. …
And you had some very bad people [at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.]
But you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides. …
These are my people.
— Donald Trump (1946)
We must secure— David Lane (1938 – 2007)
- the existence of our people, and
- a future for white children.
(The 1940s, America in Color, Episode 3, 2017)
(Rally by the German American Bund funded by the German Nazi Party, Madison Square Garden, 20 February 1939)
(Danny O'Brien, America, Hitler's World, Episode 1, 2018)
(Julian Jones, The Rise of the Nazis, BBC, 2019)
(Adam Thompson, Documenting Hate: Charlottesville, PBS Frontline & Pro Publica, 2018)Donald Trump (1946):
I need the kind of generals that Hitler had.
People who were totally loyal to him, that follow orders.
John Kelly (1950) [White House Chief of Staff to Donald Trump]:
[German generals] tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off.
Donald Trump (1946):
No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him. …
Hitler did some good things: [he] rebuilt the economy.
(Jeffrey Goldberg, Trump: ‘I Need the Kind of Generals That Hitler Had’, The Atlantic, October 2024)
Mark Milley (1958) [Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff]:
[Trump] is now the most dangerous person to this country..
A fascist to the core.
(Martin Pengelly, Mark Milley fears being court-martialed if Trump wins, Woodward book says, The Guardian, 11 October 2024)
Jennfier Mercieca: What makes Trump a 'fascist'?
Would you like to know more?
