{"id":45916,"date":"2026-01-06T22:00:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T06:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=45916"},"modified":"2026-01-06T22:13:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T06:13:28","slug":"45916","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/01\/06\/45916\/","title":{"rendered":"RFK Jr. compared Trump to Hitler and praised descriptions of his supporters as \u2018Nazis\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Andrew<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Andrew Kaczynski<\/a>, CNN<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Updated November 21, 2024 (CNN.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"GLENDALE,<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

“\u201c\u2018We may not have that many outright Nazis in America, but we have plenty of cowards and bootlickers, and once those fleshy dominoes start tumbling into the Trump camp, the game is up,”<\/p>\n–Kennedy<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

CNN rolls the tape on RFK Jr.’s past criticisms of Trump: https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/11\/21\/politics\/kfile-rfk-jr-trump-critique<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s pick<\/a> for secretary of Health and Human Services, has a long history of scathing critiques<\/a> against Trump, labeling him a \u201cthreat to democracy,\u201d a \u201cbully,\u201d and, as recently as July, a \u201cterrible president.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Kennedy\u2019s harshest attacks date back to Trump\u2019s rise in 2016, when on his radio show \u201cRing of Fire,\u201d Kennedy applauded descriptions of Trump\u2019s base as \u201cbelligerent idiots\u201d and suggestions that some were \u201coutright Nazis\u201d and \u201cspineless fellow travelers.\u201d<\/em> Kennedy also likened Trump to historical demagogues like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, accusing Trump of exploiting societal insecurities and xenophobia to amass power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Trump won in 2016, Kennedy concluded in one episode from December of that year that Trump was at least in one way not like Hitler, because, \u201cHitler was interested in policy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A CNN KFile review of Kennedy\u2019s past comments shows they fit a pattern of consistent, broad-based criticism that Kennedy has leveled at Trump over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, Kennedy argued<\/a> that Trump had turned his first<\/a> administration over to corporate lobbyists from industries they were supposed to regulate\u2014 industries that Kennedy would actually be able to regulate in some cases if confirmed as Trump\u2019s HHS secretary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the head of HHS, Kennedy would oversee vast swathes of the American food and health care industries. The sprawling federal agency has a mandatory proposed budge<\/a>t exceeding $1.7 trillion and oversees key public health initiatives, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Medicare and Medicaid, which together impact the lives of all Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement to CNN, Kennedy expressed pride in serving in Trump\u2019s administration, supported Trump\u2019s vision for the country and said he regrets his past comments about the former president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLike many Americans, I allowed myself to believe the mainstream media\u2019s distorted, dystopian portrait of President Trump. I no longer hold this belief and now regret having made those statements,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comparing Trump to demagogues<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Kennedy\u2019s years of criticism toward Trump began to soften after he was shunned by the Democratic Party during the 2024 primary, prompting him to run as an independent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked in August whether he would ever serve in Trump\u2019s cabinet, Kennedy said,<\/a> \u201cNo.\u201d but weeks later, he ended his campaign and endorsed Trump. Kennedy has since refrained from any public criticism of Trump, aligning himself with the former president on issues like government censorship and public health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Trump,<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Trump, left, greets Robert F. Kennedy Jr., at a campaign rally in Glendale, Arizona, on August 23. Kennedy had just suspended his independent campaign and threw his support behind Trump. Adriana Zehbrauskas\/The New York Times\/Redux<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the newly uncovered comments from Kennedy\u2019s radio show underscore the intensity of his past rebukes of Trump, including having leveled charges of racism toward him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kennedy repeatedly accused Trump of exploiting fear, bigotry and xenophobia to build a \u201cdangerous\u201d nationalist movement and warned Trump would destroy both the climate and clean water. Kennedy also compared Trump\u2019s supporters to white Americans in the 1970s who, he said, viewed the Civil Rights Movement as a \u201csocial demotion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one episode of \u201cRing of Fire\u201d from December 2016, Kennedy compared Trump\u2019s strategy to historical demagogues who rose during times of crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drawing comparisons to global crises such as the Great Depression, Kennedy said periods of economic and social instability had often given rise to demagogues who exploit fear, prejudice and insecurity to gain power. He cited figures abroad like Hitler, Francisco Franco and Mussolini, as well as Huey Long and Father Coughlin in the US, as historical parallels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd you can see that every statement that Donald Trump makes is fear-based,\u201d Kennedy said on his radio show in December 2016. \u201cEvery statement he makes. You know, we have to be fear of the Muslims. We have to be fear of the black people, and particularly the big Black guy Obama, who\u2019s destroying this country, who\u2019s making everybody miserable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd only one person has the genius and the capacity to solve these things. And I\u2019m not gonna tell you how I\u2019m gonna do it. Just trust in me, vote for me and everything will be great again. And of course, that whole thing is like a carnival barker,\u201d Kennedy concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also compared Trump\u2019s appeal to that of famous segregationist Alabama Gov. George Wallace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWallace\u2019s appeal \u2026 was to White middle-class men who had experienced the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s as a social demotion, and who found their lives in turmoil,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cAnd that kind of insecurity, I think, is the target of the summons that Donald Trump has sent out to the American public.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Belligerent idiots\u2019 and \u2018Outright Nazis\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In March 2016, Kennedy praised journalist Matt Taibbi\u2019s critique of Trump\u2019s base, reading on-air a passage that harshly condemned Trump and his followers which he called \u201cbeautifully\u201d written.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the things that you write so beautifully, and your stuff is so fun to read, but you write about Trump, quote, \u2018The way that you build a truly vicious nationalist movement is to wed a relatively small core of belligerent idiots to a much larger group of opportunists and spineless fellow travelers whose primary function is to turn a blind eye to things,\u2019\u201d Kennedy said, reading Taibbi\u2019s own writing back to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018We may not have that many outright Nazis in America, but we have plenty of cowards and bootlickers, and once those fleshy dominoes start tumbling into the Trump camp, the game is up,\u2019\u201d Kennedy said in finishing the passage Taibbi wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd, you know, he\u2019s not like Hitler,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cHitler had like a plan, you know, Hitler was interested in policy,\u201d Kennedy went on. \u201cI don\u2019t think Trump has any of that. He\u2019s like non compos mentis. He\u2019ll get in there and who knows what will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attacked Trump\u2019s views on the environment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Kennedy on his radio show also harshly criticized Trump\u2019s environmental policies, accusing him of promoting reckless climate denialism and prioritizing corporate interests over public health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On one episode of \u201cRing of Fire\u201d in December 2016, Kennedy referenced an article by climate scientist Michael Mann and said, \u201cMichael Mann did a great article this week about the 10 worst climate deniers in the world, the most damaging, most destructive. And Donald Trump is number one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He accused Trump of pursuing \u201cpollution-based prosperity\u201d by rolling back regulations like the Clean Water Act and withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Robert<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a rally opposing the Constitution Pipeline outside the state Capitol on Tuesday, April 5, 2016, in Albany, New York. Erik McGregor\/LightRocket\/Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTrump isn\u2019t just gonna destroy the climate, but he\u2019s also promised last week when he spoke to the oil industry, the shale gas industry, he promised that he would get rid of the Clean Water Act,\u201d he added. \u201cSo he\u2019s just gonna open the floodgates to every kind of pollution \u2026 Trump\u2019s prosperity is gonna be pollution-based prosperity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kennedy\u2019s sharp criticisms of Trump extended into 2019, when he compared Trump\u2019s EPA chief Andrew Wheeler to one<\/a> of the \u201cFour Horsemen of the Apocalypse\u201d and called Trump\u2019s efforts to boost fossil fuel production<\/a> \u201cdespicable,\u201d accusing him of knowingly prioritizing coal, oil and gas over the planet\u2019s future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Andrew Kaczynski, CNN Updated November 21, 2024 (CNN.com) “\u201c\u2018We may not have that many outright Nazis in America, but we have plenty of cowards and bootlickers, and once those fleshy dominoes start tumbling into the Trump camp, the game is up,” –Kennedy CNN rolls the tape on RFK Jr.’s past… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45916"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45916"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45923,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45916\/revisions\/45923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}