To understand Donald Trump’s hold on American hopes—and fears—imagine the following: 

German dictator Adolf Hitler loses the war he had started. But instead of committing suicide, he succumbs to pressure to resign as Fuhrer. 

Despite overwhelming evidence against him, he is never brought to trial for:

• Conspiring to seize power during the Weimar Republic.
• Suppressing opposition political parties, freedom of speech, press and basic civil rights.
• Starting World War II.
• Waging aggressive war.
• Ordering the German Army to commit systematic and premeditated acts of brutality against the civilian populations of Europe.
• Being responsible for the deaths of 50 million men, women and children (including those slaughtered by his allies Italy and Japan).
• Having ordered the annihilation of the Jews, resulting in six million deaths by murder or starvation.

Adolf Hitler

Instead of facing prosecution for his crimes, he is:

• Given a lavish pension.
• Round-the-clock protection by elite bodyguards.
• Allowed to once again become a candidate for the highest elected office in the country.
• Allowed, in campaigning for that office, to slander and/or threaten everyone he believes poses the slightest threat to his candidacy. 

Now, consider the case of Donald J. Trump. During his four-year Presidency, he: 

• Repeatedly and viciously attacked the nation’s free press for daring to report his growing list of crimes and disasters, calling it “the enemy of the American people”—a phrase popularized by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
• Publicly sided with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin against American Intelligence agencies—such as the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency—which unanimously agreed that Russia had interfered with the 2016 Presidential election.
• Used his position as President to further enrich himself, in violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.
• Attacked and alienated America’s oldest allies, such as Canada and Great Britain.
• Fired FBI Director James Comey for refusing to pledge his personal loyalty to Trump—and turn the FBI into Trump’s personal Gestapo.

James Comey

• Repeatedly attacked his own Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, for not “protecting” him from agents pursuing the Russia investigation—and fired him on November 7, 2018, the day after Democrats won a majority of House seats.
• Shut down the Federal Government on December 22, 2018, because Democrats refused to fund his “border wall” between the United States and Mexico. An estimated 380,000 government employees were furloughed and another 420,000 were ordered to work without pay.
• Gave highly classified CIA Intelligence to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Specifically: How Islamic State terrorists planned to turn laptops into concealable bombs.

Donald Trump

• Identified with and coddled such ruthless dictators as China’s Xi Jinping, North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
• Repeatedly attacked Michigan Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer—after she had been targeted for kidnapping and execution by Trump’s Right-wing followers.
• Allowed the deadly COVID-19 virus to ravage the country, infecting and killing more than 400,000 Americans.
• Attacked the medical experts and governors who urged Americans to wear masks and socially distance to protect themselves from COVID-19.
• Urged his followers to illegally vote twice for him in the 2020 Presidential election.
• Fired Chris Krebs, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, for rejecting Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 Presidential election.
• Refused to accept the will of 80,117,438 voters who had made former Vice President Joe Biden President-elect of the United States.
• Illegally tried to pressure state legislatures and governors to stop the certification of the vote that had made Biden the President-elect.
• Incited his followers to violently attack the Capitol Building where Senators and Representatives were meeting on January 6, 2021, to count the Electoral Votes won by himself and Biden. His objective: Stop the count, which he knew would prove him the loser.

After the Third Reich collapsed in May, 1945, Germans didn’t allow surviving Nazis to try to revive it. Yet that is precisely the situation the United States now faces.  

Donald Trump was twice impeached. In 2019, he faced two charges:

• Abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

And in 2021, he was charged with:

• Incitement of insurrection.

In both cases, the evidence against him was overwhelming. And, in both cases, Right-wing Republicans ignored it and acquitted him.

Had he been convicted in either case, he would have lost:

• His Presidential pension
• His Secret Service protection
• His legal right to hold office again

But Republican Senators—out of lust for power and/or fear of opposing Trump—unleashed on the United States a man dedicated only to his own greed, egomania and vindictiveness.

Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) typified their desire to appear “law and order” tough. Immediately after Trump incited his followers to attack Congress on January 6, 2021, he said:  “If this isn’t impeachable, I don’t know what is.”

Then he voted for acquittal.

And, on March 6, 2024, after Trump won a series of Republican Presidential primaries, McConnell said: “It is abundantly clear that former President Trump has earned the requisite support of Republican voters to be our nominee for President of the United States. It should come as no surprise that as nominee, he will have my support.”

The democratic Weimar Republic of Germany (1919 – 1933) found itself menaced by ruthless Fascists, betrayed by its supposed allies, and defended by liberals unwilling to forcefully defeat its enemies.

The same combination of forces are now on full display in the United States.