There have been countless pundits, including yours truly, who have compared Donald Trump to Hitler. Many of those comparisons, sadly, are accurate.
But one doesn’t have to go all the way back to 1934 when President Hindenburg died and Hitler combined the offices of president and chancellor into one.
Nor is it necessary to look to events in Germany to get an idea of how one charismatic person possessing fiery rhetoric can whip an entire country into a frenzy with lies and deceit.
A much shorter trip, both in terms of time and distance is all that is needed to understand that Trump is following a well-worn path to power that was blazed by despots before him.
Take a trip back to 1959 and just 90 miles from the southernmost point in the U.S. and you have Fidel Castro and his Cuban revolution that deposed Fulgencio Batista.
Under Batista, Cuba was corrupt to the core, to be sure. The American Mafia controlled the island’s casinos and hotels and native Cubans slaved their lives away on U.S. corporation-owned sugar plantations for scant pay.
Castro set out to change that with the backing of many powerful figures in Washington. President Eisenhower and his Vice President Richard were not among them, however. When Castro visited Washington, Ike conveniently went golfing in Georgia (sound familiar?), leaving Nixon to meet with the revolutionary leader. They agreed on precious little.
Still, Castro had at least the tacit support of much of the U.S., including the CIA which secretly gave financial support to Castro’s efforts early on. Ironically, it would be the CIA that later tried unsuccessfully (several times) to have him assassinated and even sponsored the fiasco that would become known as the Bay of Pigs invasion.
He even appeared on the ED SULLIVAN SHOW and the film clip was seen by 50 million people as Sullivan interviewed Castro only hours before his triumphant entrance into Havana to seize power. In that interview, Sullivan called Castro not a revolutionist, but an “agrarian reformer.”
Few knew at the time that Soviet troops were already training Castro’s men.
The first indication of Castro’s real intent was his signing into law in May 1959 the first law of the Cuban Revolution, the Agrarian Reform Law which
- Banned all foreign ownership of land;
- Confiscated land holdings of more than 1,000 acres;
- Created a state agricultural sector to control about a third of the country’s farmland.
Soon after ascending to full power, he announced to the world that he was a Marxist and in 1962 the world came to the brink of all-out war with the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis
The second Agrarian Reform Law, enacted in October 1963, centralized state control of the country’s agricultural sector.
So, we can see that Castro literally charmed the U.S. into thinking his only goal was to kick out the corruption of the Mafia and U.S. corporations who were getting rich off destitute Cubans, his real agenda was to establish a Soviet satellite in the Western Hemisphere.
He used guile, deceit and outright lies to achieve his goals and only then did he show his true hand. By then, it was too late.
It’s a lesson we should consider carefully before November 5.
After all, we’ve already seen how cozy Trump is with Putin
Louisiana Voice 
MAGA fascists love Trump not in spite of who he is but because of who he is. When Trump says people from other countries have “murder genes” he’s echoing what most ignorant MAGA voters believe. When Trump says he wants to deport legal immigrants he’s expressing the same contempt for the law his supporters already have. Trump’s character is not a flaw to his supporters; it’s the reason they support him. The ONLY thing MAGA voters truly believe in is that they are entitled to their prejudices as made manifest in the person of Donald J. Trump. Trump is a serious problem but seventy million self-righteous fascists are a bigger problem. Trump can be defeated and maybe held accountable if the Supreme Court doesn’t bail him out again. But I don’t know what to do about all those sold out fascists, the cowards they elect to public office, the propaganda media that fuels their willful ignorance, or how much they despise their fellow Americans and the equal application of law. At least I can’t think of anything effective that doesn’t end in violence. For what it’s worth I believe Trump will be defeated in November. However, that won’t be the end of MAGA fascism. I wish I felt more hopeful. I want to feel more hopeful. But I don’t.
Well said, Paul. I have given up hope of our country’s divide being peacefully resolved in the absence of some currently unpredictable occurrence. The people who support Mr. Trump and his acolytes, including John Neely Kennedy, Steve Scalise, and Clay Higgins could not view things more differently than I do and I realize common ground does not exist. Like you, I sincerely hope Mr. Trump loses the election, and resoundingly so, but it will not change the hearts and minds of his supporters. The politics of hate will live on and, I expect, outlive me. In the meantime, we will have to deal with whatever the future brings. Since we can’t even agree on what is true and what is not, there is scant hope for unity and peace.
Paul, as a commenter said on another post about Trump’s comment on the gaining of beachfront property as a result of climate change, we should not fear what he says, we should fear his backers who applaud everything he says.
I know you’d prefer that I write my comment on your blog. My anxiety is building. I have to distract myself, tamp down my thoughts. Castro. Yes, that’s an apt comparison but it forces me to focus my mind on you know who. I just can’t. I hope you understand why.
Kathy Cox
Not the first time the US has been burned by Dictator we helped gain power and unfortunately, not likely the last. Agree with Kathy’s comment that this is an apt comparison between Trump and another fascist. Now, if someone would explain to Trump and his MAGA faithful that they make absolutely zero sense when they call their opponents commie, fascist, socialists. Unless I was taught the wrong facts in history class, did the Allies in WW2 not align with the Communists to defeat the Fascists? How can their opponents be both?