Former President Donald Trump has entered "new terrain" based on his authoritarian tendencies and rhetoric that has drawn comparisons by some to Adolf Hitler, argues a psychiatrist quoted in a New York Times op-ed.
Trump took issue with multiple groups during a Veterans Day speech in Claremont, New Hampshire, saying: "On Veterans Day, we pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections."
He repeated the phrasing and use of the word "vermin," almost verbatim in a Truth Social post following the speech, adding that such groups will "legally or illegally" attempt to "destroy America, and the American Dream." President Joe Biden's 2024 re-election team said Trump had embraced the language of Hitler by using the word "vermin."
A post on November 13 on X, formerly Twitter, by left-leaning outlet MeidasTouch attempted to delve deeper into the Trump-Hitler comparison, comparing statements and rhetoric between the 45th president and the Nazi Party leader.
Trump has also said: "I will take care of the 'threat from within'"; "Migrants are 'poisoning the blood of our country'"; and "One people, one family, one glorious nation."
Hitler's statements were: "I will get rid of the 'communist' 'vermin'"; "I will take care of the 'enemy within'"; "Jews and migrants are poisoning Aryan blood"; and "One people, one realm, one leader."
A Newsweek Fact Check found that the quotes, while not identical and separated by very different contexts, were similar. However, Trump's team said after the Veterans Day speech that his critics were suffering from "Trump Derangement Syndrome" and called the comparison with Hitler ridiculous.
In his New York Times column, opinion writer Thomas Edsall quotes a letter written to him by Leonard Glass, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Glass wonders whether the Trump-Hitler comparison based on the usage of the word "vermin" has crossed into "new terrain."
"That terrain, driven by grandiosity and dread of exposure (e.g., at the [criminal] trials) could signal the emergence of an even less constrained, more overtly vicious and remorseless Trump who, should he regain the presidency, would, indeed act like the authoritarians he praises," Glass wrote.
"Absent conscientious aides who could contain him (as they barely did last time), this could lead to the literal shedding of American blood on American soil by a man who believes he is 'the only one' and the one, some believe, is a purifying agent of God and in whom they see no evil nor do they doubt."
Newsweek reached out to Glass and to the Trump campaign via email for comment.
Edsall argues that Trump used similar rhetoric prior to Veterans Day during a rally in Waco, Texas, in March where he said: "I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution."
The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Trump wants the Department of Justice to investigate officials and allies who have criticized him or his presidency during his time in office, including former Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and former Attorney General Bill Barr.
Kelly, a retired four-star general, has been vocal about Trump's rhetoric and the potential of his reelection as the beginning of a "danger zone" for the U.S.
"What's going on in the country that a single person thinks this guy would still be a good president when he's said the things he's said and done the things he's done?" Kelly said in a recent interview with the Post. "It's beyond my comprehension he has the support he has."
Following the Veterans Day speech, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told Newsweek: "Those who try to make that ridiculous assertion are clearly snowflakes grasping for anything because they are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome and their sad, miserable existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House."
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a longtime ally of Trump and his former lawyer, fired back by accusing DOJ special counsel Jack Smith of imitating authoritarian regimes including Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union by expressing opposition to Trump's criminal trial being televised.
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Nick Mordowanec is a Newsweek reporter based in Michigan. His focus is reporting on Ukraine and Russia, along with social ... Read more
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