I Don’t Think that Means What he Thinks it Means
Trump on peaceful transfers (and Hitler).
Via Politico: Trump vows a peaceful transfer of power if reelected.
“Of course,” Trump responded to Hewitt when asked if he would hand over power peacefully if reelected. “And I did that this time. And I’ll tell you what. The election was rigged, and we have plenty of evidence of it. But I did it anyway.”
You know, apart from leading an insurrection, it was peaceful.
Not to mention that it is oh so very charitable of him to concede that he would leave peacefully at the end of his constitutionally mandated two-term limit when he would be 82 years of age.
I do believe him here:
But Trump maintained Friday that he’s not a student of Hitler, and he’s never read “Mein Kampf,” the manifesto written by Hitler.
There is little evidence that Trump reads, and therefore I can fully accept the has not read Mein Kampf, it isn’t exactly the most readable of books. Do I think that he has been influenced by ideas that resonate with the contents of Mein Kampf? That much is clearly true based on his own words multiple times over the years, especially of late.
Note that one need not be a “student of Hitler” to be a fascist or to spout eliminationist rhetoric.
Also, here is some pretzel logic:
“First of all, I know nothing about Hitler,” Trump said Friday. “I’m not a student of Hitler. I never read his works. They say that he said something about blood. He didn’t say it the way I said it, either, by the way, It’s a very different kind of a statement.”
Query: if he knows nothing (cue Sergeant Schultz) about Hitler, how can he know that his statement is so very different than Hitler’s?
Adolph might have read Mein Kampf for Dummies, but found it well above his intellectual level. He wont read the “for Morons” version because he’s afraid that, too, will go over his head.
Within the past few days here at OTB I posted this from Vanity Fair, September 1990 issue.
Not that Trump would recall considering the senile dementia thingy.
Link:
https://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/2015/07/donald-ivana-trump-divorce-prenup-marie-brenner
@charontwo: You beat me to it.
He’s either read Hitler, watched a lot of documentaries about Hitler, or he’s channeling Hitler from beyond the grave.
I imagine you’ll find Stephen Miller in the pipeline. Pretty sure he’s memorized Mein Kampf – in the original spittle-flecked German.
@Michael Reynolds:
Miller confounds me. He’s a JEW, ffs.
Don’t get me wrong–he is channeling Hitler. I just don’t think he reads or is a “student” of anything.
@Michael Reynolds: THAT I would believe.
@charontwo: I am sure he owns the book. I just doubt he read it.
Someone gave him a set of coasters for his birthday with excerpts from Hitler’s “greatest” speeches, and he read a new one whenever he had a diet Coke. Prove I’m wrong.
It would not surprise me if his vile father used to harangue the family with Hitler’s Greatest Hits over the dinner table. And yes, Hitler was fixated on keeping the Aryan race’s blood pure, which is totally different to the way Trump uses the expression.
“He didn’t say it the way I said it, either, by the way”
He’s right, Hitler said it in German.
I’m living in a country where he could be the president again. Scary.
OMG, Hitler. I think I might have a copy on “My Struggle” in a box of similar unread books bought at a library book sale 40 years ago. The only crazy book I tried to get was “The Turner Diaries,” just to figure out what the crazies were talking about. I went into my huge local used book store asking for it, nope. I left with some long meandering tales of murder and mayhem instead.
The idea Trump actually read Mein Kampf is ludicrous. And guess what, not every single word out of Hitler’s mouth was bad (ditto Stalin and Mao – my, it is a nice day today… (if Hitler said it, there can never be any nice days by this reckoning). Made up controversy. It is the overall that matters, not a few sound clips.
I’m certainly not a Trump fan (nor any NYC area politician to include Christie) but seriously, Nazi? (self-centered idiot, egotist, ignorant….)
@Richard Gardner:
The phrases in question were:
“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,”
and
This is pretty fascistic stuff and very much echoes words from Mein Kampf (which I have not read cover-to-cover, but have taught it as part of a political theory class).
This is not about some casual connection wherein Trump and Hitler both said they like dogs (which, actually, is true of Hitler, but not Trump).
@Ken_L: Trump’s (truly horrible) father is probably a huge part of what is wrong with the man. By many counts, Trump is fairly obsessed with eugenics, which likely came from his father, as that was a burgeoning theory in the 30s.