AUGUST 15, 2025<\/time><\/a> MIKE ZONTA<\/a> LEAVE A COMMENT<\/a> EDIT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics.By Anne Applebaum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nJon Cherry \/ Getty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 18, 2024 (TheAtlantic.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\nTo support The Atlantic<\/em>\u2019s journalism, please consider subscribing<\/a> today.<\/small><\/p>\n\n\n\nRhetoric has a history. The words democracy<\/em> and tyranny<\/em> were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers<\/em> became important in the 17th and 18th centuries. The word vermin,<\/em> as a political term, dates from the 1930s and \u201940s, when both fascists and communists liked to describe their political enemies as vermin, parasites, and blood infections, as well as insects, weeds, dirt, and animals. The term has been revived and reanimated, in an American presidential campaign, with Donald Trump\u2019s description of his opponents<\/a> as \u201cradical-left thugs\u201d who \u201clive like vermin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nENJOY A YEAR OF UNLIMITED ACCESS TO THE ATLANTIC\u2014INCLUDING EVERY STORY ON OUR SITE AND APP, SUBSCRIBER NEWSLETTERS, AND MORE.Become a Subscriber<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nThis language isn\u2019t merely ugly or repellent: These words belong to a particular tradition. Adolf Hitler used these kinds of terms often. In 1938, he praised his compatriots who had helped \u201ccleanse Germany of all those parasites who drank at the well of the despair of the Fatherland and the People.\u201d In occupied Warsaw, a 1941 poster displayed a drawing of a louse with a caricature of a Jewish face. The slogan: \u201cJews are lice: they cause typhus.\u201d Germans, by contrast, were clean, pure, healthy, and vermin-free. Hitler once described the Nazi flag as \u201cthe victorious sign of freedom and the purity of our blood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nPeter Wehner: Have you listened lately to what Trump is saying?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nStalin used the same kind of language at about the same time. He called his opponents the \u201cenemies of the people,\u201d implying that they were not citizens and that they enjoyed no rights. He portrayed them as vermin, pollution, filth that had to be \u201csubjected to ongoing purification,\u201d and he inspired his fellow communists to employ similar rhetoric. In my files, I have the notes from a 1955 meeting of the leaders of the Stasi, the East German secret police, during which one of them called for a struggle against \u201cvermin activities\u201d<\/em> (there is, inevitably, a German word for this: Sch\u00e4dlingst\u00e4tigkeiten<\/em>), by which he meant the purge and arrest of the regime\u2019s critics. In this same era, the Stasi forcibly moved suspicious people away from the border with West Germany, a project nicknamed \u201cOperation Vermin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis kind of language was not limited to Europe. Mao Zedong also described his political opponents as \u201cpoisonous weeds.\u201d Pol Pot spoke of \u201ccleansing\u201d hundreds of thousands of his compatriots so that Cambodia would be \u201cpurified.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nDON\u2019T MISS WHAT MATTERS. SIGN UP FOR THE ATLANTIC DAILY NEWSLETTER.Email AddressSign Up<\/p>\n\n\n\nYour newsletter subscriptions are subject to The Atlantic\u2019s Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms and Conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn each of these very different societies, the purpose of this kind of rhetoric was the same. If you connect your opponents with disease, illness, and poisoned blood, if you dehumanize them as insects or animals, if you speak of squashing them or cleansing them as if they were pests or bacteria, then you can much more easily arrest them, deprive them of rights, exclude them, or even kill them. If they are parasites, they aren\u2019t human. If they are vermin, they don\u2019t get to enjoy freedom of speech, or freedoms of any kind. And if you squash them, you won\u2019t be held accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRECOMMENDED READING<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n<\/a>How the Ballpoint Pen Killed Cursive<\/a>JOSH GIESBRECHT<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<\/a>Choose Enjoyment Over Pleasure<\/a>ARTHUR C. BROOKS<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<\/a>The Myth of the Kindly General Lee<\/a>ADAM SERWER<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nUntil recently, this kind of language was not a normal part of American presidential politics. Even George Wallace\u2019s notorious, racist, neo-Confederate 1963 speech, his inaugural speech as Alabama governor and the prelude to his first presidential campaign, avoided such language. Wallace called for \u201csegregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.\u201d But he did not speak of his political opponents as \u201cvermin\u201d or talk about them poisoning the nation\u2019s blood. Franklin D. Roosevelt\u2019s Executive Order 9066<\/a>, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps following the outbreak of World War II, spoke of \u201calien enemies\u201d but not parasites.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRead: Trump isn\u2019t bluffing<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the 2024 campaign, that line has been crossed. Trump blurs the distinction between illegal immigrants and legal immigrants\u2014the latter including his wife, his late ex-wife, the in-laws of his running mate, and many others. He has said of immigrants<\/a>, \u201cThey\u2019re poisoning the blood of our country\u201d and \u201cThey\u2019re destroying the blood of our country.\u201d He has claimed<\/a> that many have \u201cbad genes.\u201d He has also been more explicit: \u201cThey\u2019re not humans; they\u2019re animals\u201d; they are \u201ccold-blooded killers.\u201d He refers more broadly<\/a> to his opponents\u2014American citizens, some of whom are elected officials\u2014as \u201cthe enemy from within \u2026 sick people, radical-left lunatics.\u201d Not only do they have no rights; they should be \u201chandled by,\u201d he has said, \u201cif necessary, National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nMAKE YOUR INBOX MORE INTERESTING WITH NEWSLETTERS FROM YOUR FAVORITE ATLANTIC WRITERS.Browse Newsletters<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn using this language, Trump knows exactly what he is doing<\/a>. He understands which era and what kind of politics this language evokes. \u201cI haven\u2019t read Mein Kampf<\/em>,\u201d he declared, unprovoked, during one rally\u2014an admission that he knows what Hitler\u2019s manifesto contains, whether or not he has actually read it. \u201cIf you don\u2019t use certain rhetoric,\u201d he told an interviewer<\/a>, \u201cif you don\u2019t use certain words, and maybe they\u2019re not very nice words, nothing will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nHis talk of mass deportation<\/a> is equally calculating. When he suggests that he would target<\/a> both legal and illegal immigrants, or use the military arbitrarily against U.S. citizens, he does so knowing that past dictatorships have used public displays of violence to build popular support. By calling for mass violence, he hints at his admiration for these dictatorships<\/a> but also demonstrates disdain for the rule of law and prepares his followers to accept the idea that his regime could, like its predecessors, break the law with impunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese are not jokes, and Trump is not laughing. Nor are the people around him. Delegates at the Republican National Convention held up <\/a>prefabricated<\/a> signs<\/a>: mass deportation now. Just this week, when Trump was swaying to music at a surreal rally<\/a>, he did so in front of a huge slogan<\/a>: trump was right about everything. This is language borrowed directly from Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist. Soon after the rally, the scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat posted a photograph<\/a> of a building in Mussolini\u2019s Italy displaying his slogan: mussolini is always right.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Atlantic<\/em> Daily: The atmosphere of a Trump rally<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese phrases have not been put on posters and banners at random in the final weeks of an American election season. With less than three weeks left to go, most candidates would be fighting for the middle ground, for the swing voters. Trump is doing the exact opposite. Why? There can be only one answer: because he and his campaign team believe that by using the tactics of the 1930s, they can win. The deliberate dehumanization of whole groups of people; the references to police, to violence, to the \u201cbloodbath\u201d that Trump has said<\/a> will unfold if he doesn\u2019t win; the cultivation of hatred not only against immigrants but also against political opponents\u2014none of this has been used successfully in modern American politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut neither has this rhetoric been tried<\/em> in modern American politics. Several generations of American politicians have assumed that American voters, most of whom learned to pledge allegiance to the flag in school, grew up with the rule of law, and have never experienced occupation or invasion, would be resistant to this kind of language and imagery. Trump is gambling\u2014knowingly and cynically\u2014that we are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNOW IS THE TIME TO BE INFORMED.SIGN IN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nSubscribe<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a>\u00a0is a staff writer at\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Mediaite\">Mediaite<\/a> Aug 13, 2025 Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic, has covered dictators for decades. In an interview from before the 2024 election with Mediaite\u2019s Press Club, she told host Aidan McLaughlin that Donald Trump\u2019s language mirrored rhetoric from Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. She described a disturbing trend in his authoritarian language \u2014 and how it foreshadowed his consolidation of \u201cabsolute power\u201d in a second term as president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TRUMP IS SPEAKING LIKE HITLER, STALIN, AND MUSSOLINI AUGUST 15, 2025 MIKE ZONTA LEAVE A COMMENT EDIT The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics.By Anne Applebaum OCTOBER 18, 2024 (TheAtlantic.com) To support The Atlantic\u2019s journalism, please consider subscribing today. Rhetoric has a history. The words democracy and tyranny were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers became… <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/43250\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→ <\/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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43252,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions\/43252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics.By Anne Applebaum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nJon Cherry \/ Getty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nOCTOBER 18, 2024 (TheAtlantic.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\nTo support The Atlantic<\/em>\u2019s journalism, please consider subscribing<\/a> today.<\/small><\/p>\n\n\n\nRhetoric has a history. The words democracy<\/em> and tyranny<\/em> were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers<\/em> became important in the 17th and 18th centuries. The word vermin,<\/em> as a political term, dates from the 1930s and \u201940s, when both fascists and communists liked to describe their political enemies as vermin, parasites, and blood infections, as well as insects, weeds, dirt, and animals. The term has been revived and reanimated, in an American presidential campaign, with Donald Trump\u2019s description of his opponents<\/a> as \u201cradical-left thugs\u201d who \u201clive like vermin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nENJOY A YEAR OF UNLIMITED ACCESS TO THE ATLANTIC\u2014INCLUDING EVERY STORY ON OUR SITE AND APP, SUBSCRIBER NEWSLETTERS, AND MORE.Become a Subscriber<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nThis language isn\u2019t merely ugly or repellent: These words belong to a particular tradition. Adolf Hitler used these kinds of terms often. In 1938, he praised his compatriots who had helped \u201ccleanse Germany of all those parasites who drank at the well of the despair of the Fatherland and the People.\u201d In occupied Warsaw, a 1941 poster displayed a drawing of a louse with a caricature of a Jewish face. The slogan: \u201cJews are lice: they cause typhus.\u201d Germans, by contrast, were clean, pure, healthy, and vermin-free. Hitler once described the Nazi flag as \u201cthe victorious sign of freedom and the purity of our blood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nPeter Wehner: Have you listened lately to what Trump is saying?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nStalin used the same kind of language at about the same time. He called his opponents the \u201cenemies of the people,\u201d implying that they were not citizens and that they enjoyed no rights. He portrayed them as vermin, pollution, filth that had to be \u201csubjected to ongoing purification,\u201d and he inspired his fellow communists to employ similar rhetoric. In my files, I have the notes from a 1955 meeting of the leaders of the Stasi, the East German secret police, during which one of them called for a struggle against \u201cvermin activities\u201d<\/em> (there is, inevitably, a German word for this: Sch\u00e4dlingst\u00e4tigkeiten<\/em>), by which he meant the purge and arrest of the regime\u2019s critics. In this same era, the Stasi forcibly moved suspicious people away from the border with West Germany, a project nicknamed \u201cOperation Vermin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis kind of language was not limited to Europe. Mao Zedong also described his political opponents as \u201cpoisonous weeds.\u201d Pol Pot spoke of \u201ccleansing\u201d hundreds of thousands of his compatriots so that Cambodia would be \u201cpurified.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nDON\u2019T MISS WHAT MATTERS. SIGN UP FOR THE ATLANTIC DAILY NEWSLETTER.Email AddressSign Up<\/p>\n\n\n\nYour newsletter subscriptions are subject to The Atlantic\u2019s Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms and Conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn each of these very different societies, the purpose of this kind of rhetoric was the same. If you connect your opponents with disease, illness, and poisoned blood, if you dehumanize them as insects or animals, if you speak of squashing them or cleansing them as if they were pests or bacteria, then you can much more easily arrest them, deprive them of rights, exclude them, or even kill them. If they are parasites, they aren\u2019t human. If they are vermin, they don\u2019t get to enjoy freedom of speech, or freedoms of any kind. And if you squash them, you won\u2019t be held accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRECOMMENDED READING<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n<\/a>How the Ballpoint Pen Killed Cursive<\/a>JOSH GIESBRECHT<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<\/a>Choose Enjoyment Over Pleasure<\/a>ARTHUR C. BROOKS<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<\/a>The Myth of the Kindly General Lee<\/a>ADAM SERWER<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nUntil recently, this kind of language was not a normal part of American presidential politics. Even George Wallace\u2019s notorious, racist, neo-Confederate 1963 speech, his inaugural speech as Alabama governor and the prelude to his first presidential campaign, avoided such language. Wallace called for \u201csegregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.\u201d But he did not speak of his political opponents as \u201cvermin\u201d or talk about them poisoning the nation\u2019s blood. Franklin D. Roosevelt\u2019s Executive Order 9066<\/a>, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps following the outbreak of World War II, spoke of \u201calien enemies\u201d but not parasites.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRead: Trump isn\u2019t bluffing<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the 2024 campaign, that line has been crossed. Trump blurs the distinction between illegal immigrants and legal immigrants\u2014the latter including his wife, his late ex-wife, the in-laws of his running mate, and many others. He has said of immigrants<\/a>, \u201cThey\u2019re poisoning the blood of our country\u201d and \u201cThey\u2019re destroying the blood of our country.\u201d He has claimed<\/a> that many have \u201cbad genes.\u201d He has also been more explicit: \u201cThey\u2019re not humans; they\u2019re animals\u201d; they are \u201ccold-blooded killers.\u201d He refers more broadly<\/a> to his opponents\u2014American citizens, some of whom are elected officials\u2014as \u201cthe enemy from within \u2026 sick people, radical-left lunatics.\u201d Not only do they have no rights; they should be \u201chandled by,\u201d he has said, \u201cif necessary, National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nMAKE YOUR INBOX MORE INTERESTING WITH NEWSLETTERS FROM YOUR FAVORITE ATLANTIC WRITERS.Browse Newsletters<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn using this language, Trump knows exactly what he is doing<\/a>. He understands which era and what kind of politics this language evokes. \u201cI haven\u2019t read Mein Kampf<\/em>,\u201d he declared, unprovoked, during one rally\u2014an admission that he knows what Hitler\u2019s manifesto contains, whether or not he has actually read it. \u201cIf you don\u2019t use certain rhetoric,\u201d he told an interviewer<\/a>, \u201cif you don\u2019t use certain words, and maybe they\u2019re not very nice words, nothing will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nHis talk of mass deportation<\/a> is equally calculating. When he suggests that he would target<\/a> both legal and illegal immigrants, or use the military arbitrarily against U.S. citizens, he does so knowing that past dictatorships have used public displays of violence to build popular support. By calling for mass violence, he hints at his admiration for these dictatorships<\/a> but also demonstrates disdain for the rule of law and prepares his followers to accept the idea that his regime could, like its predecessors, break the law with impunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese are not jokes, and Trump is not laughing. Nor are the people around him. Delegates at the Republican National Convention held up <\/a>prefabricated<\/a> signs<\/a>: mass deportation now. Just this week, when Trump was swaying to music at a surreal rally<\/a>, he did so in front of a huge slogan<\/a>: trump was right about everything. This is language borrowed directly from Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist. Soon after the rally, the scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat posted a photograph<\/a> of a building in Mussolini\u2019s Italy displaying his slogan: mussolini is always right.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Atlantic<\/em> Daily: The atmosphere of a Trump rally<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese phrases have not been put on posters and banners at random in the final weeks of an American election season. With less than three weeks left to go, most candidates would be fighting for the middle ground, for the swing voters. Trump is doing the exact opposite. Why? There can be only one answer: because he and his campaign team believe that by using the tactics of the 1930s, they can win. The deliberate dehumanization of whole groups of people; the references to police, to violence, to the \u201cbloodbath\u201d that Trump has said<\/a> will unfold if he doesn\u2019t win; the cultivation of hatred not only against immigrants but also against political opponents\u2014none of this has been used successfully in modern American politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut neither has this rhetoric been tried<\/em> in modern American politics. Several generations of American politicians have assumed that American voters, most of whom learned to pledge allegiance to the flag in school, grew up with the rule of law, and have never experienced occupation or invasion, would be resistant to this kind of language and imagery. Trump is gambling\u2014knowingly and cynically\u2014that we are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNOW IS THE TIME TO BE INFORMED.SIGN IN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nSubscribe<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a>\u00a0is a staff writer at\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Mediaite\">Mediaite<\/a> Aug 13, 2025 Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic, has covered dictators for decades. In an interview from before the 2024 election with Mediaite\u2019s Press Club, she told host Aidan McLaughlin that Donald Trump\u2019s language mirrored rhetoric from Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. She described a disturbing trend in his authoritarian language \u2014 and how it foreshadowed his consolidation of \u201cabsolute power\u201d in a second term as president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TRUMP IS SPEAKING LIKE HITLER, STALIN, AND MUSSOLINI AUGUST 15, 2025 MIKE ZONTA LEAVE A COMMENT EDIT The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics.By Anne Applebaum OCTOBER 18, 2024 (TheAtlantic.com) To support The Atlantic\u2019s journalism, please consider subscribing today. Rhetoric has a history. The words democracy and tyranny were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers became… <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/43250\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→ <\/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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43252,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions\/43252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
OCTOBER 18, 2024 (TheAtlantic.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To support The Atlantic<\/em>\u2019s journalism, please consider subscribing<\/a> today.<\/small><\/p>\n\n\n\nRhetoric has a history. The words democracy<\/em> and tyranny<\/em> were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers<\/em> became important in the 17th and 18th centuries. The word vermin,<\/em> as a political term, dates from the 1930s and \u201940s, when both fascists and communists liked to describe their political enemies as vermin, parasites, and blood infections, as well as insects, weeds, dirt, and animals. The term has been revived and reanimated, in an American presidential campaign, with Donald Trump\u2019s description of his opponents<\/a> as \u201cradical-left thugs\u201d who \u201clive like vermin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nENJOY A YEAR OF UNLIMITED ACCESS TO THE ATLANTIC\u2014INCLUDING EVERY STORY ON OUR SITE AND APP, SUBSCRIBER NEWSLETTERS, AND MORE.Become a Subscriber<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nThis language isn\u2019t merely ugly or repellent: These words belong to a particular tradition. Adolf Hitler used these kinds of terms often. In 1938, he praised his compatriots who had helped \u201ccleanse Germany of all those parasites who drank at the well of the despair of the Fatherland and the People.\u201d In occupied Warsaw, a 1941 poster displayed a drawing of a louse with a caricature of a Jewish face. The slogan: \u201cJews are lice: they cause typhus.\u201d Germans, by contrast, were clean, pure, healthy, and vermin-free. Hitler once described the Nazi flag as \u201cthe victorious sign of freedom and the purity of our blood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nPeter Wehner: Have you listened lately to what Trump is saying?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nStalin used the same kind of language at about the same time. He called his opponents the \u201cenemies of the people,\u201d implying that they were not citizens and that they enjoyed no rights. He portrayed them as vermin, pollution, filth that had to be \u201csubjected to ongoing purification,\u201d and he inspired his fellow communists to employ similar rhetoric. In my files, I have the notes from a 1955 meeting of the leaders of the Stasi, the East German secret police, during which one of them called for a struggle against \u201cvermin activities\u201d<\/em> (there is, inevitably, a German word for this: Sch\u00e4dlingst\u00e4tigkeiten<\/em>), by which he meant the purge and arrest of the regime\u2019s critics. In this same era, the Stasi forcibly moved suspicious people away from the border with West Germany, a project nicknamed \u201cOperation Vermin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis kind of language was not limited to Europe. Mao Zedong also described his political opponents as \u201cpoisonous weeds.\u201d Pol Pot spoke of \u201ccleansing\u201d hundreds of thousands of his compatriots so that Cambodia would be \u201cpurified.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nDON\u2019T MISS WHAT MATTERS. SIGN UP FOR THE ATLANTIC DAILY NEWSLETTER.Email AddressSign Up<\/p>\n\n\n\nYour newsletter subscriptions are subject to The Atlantic\u2019s Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms and Conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn each of these very different societies, the purpose of this kind of rhetoric was the same. If you connect your opponents with disease, illness, and poisoned blood, if you dehumanize them as insects or animals, if you speak of squashing them or cleansing them as if they were pests or bacteria, then you can much more easily arrest them, deprive them of rights, exclude them, or even kill them. If they are parasites, they aren\u2019t human. If they are vermin, they don\u2019t get to enjoy freedom of speech, or freedoms of any kind. And if you squash them, you won\u2019t be held accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRECOMMENDED READING<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n<\/a>How the Ballpoint Pen Killed Cursive<\/a>JOSH GIESBRECHT<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<\/a>Choose Enjoyment Over Pleasure<\/a>ARTHUR C. BROOKS<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<\/a>The Myth of the Kindly General Lee<\/a>ADAM SERWER<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nUntil recently, this kind of language was not a normal part of American presidential politics. Even George Wallace\u2019s notorious, racist, neo-Confederate 1963 speech, his inaugural speech as Alabama governor and the prelude to his first presidential campaign, avoided such language. Wallace called for \u201csegregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.\u201d But he did not speak of his political opponents as \u201cvermin\u201d or talk about them poisoning the nation\u2019s blood. Franklin D. Roosevelt\u2019s Executive Order 9066<\/a>, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps following the outbreak of World War II, spoke of \u201calien enemies\u201d but not parasites.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRead: Trump isn\u2019t bluffing<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the 2024 campaign, that line has been crossed. Trump blurs the distinction between illegal immigrants and legal immigrants\u2014the latter including his wife, his late ex-wife, the in-laws of his running mate, and many others. He has said of immigrants<\/a>, \u201cThey\u2019re poisoning the blood of our country\u201d and \u201cThey\u2019re destroying the blood of our country.\u201d He has claimed<\/a> that many have \u201cbad genes.\u201d He has also been more explicit: \u201cThey\u2019re not humans; they\u2019re animals\u201d; they are \u201ccold-blooded killers.\u201d He refers more broadly<\/a> to his opponents\u2014American citizens, some of whom are elected officials\u2014as \u201cthe enemy from within \u2026 sick people, radical-left lunatics.\u201d Not only do they have no rights; they should be \u201chandled by,\u201d he has said, \u201cif necessary, National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nMAKE YOUR INBOX MORE INTERESTING WITH NEWSLETTERS FROM YOUR FAVORITE ATLANTIC WRITERS.Browse Newsletters<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn using this language, Trump knows exactly what he is doing<\/a>. He understands which era and what kind of politics this language evokes. \u201cI haven\u2019t read Mein Kampf<\/em>,\u201d he declared, unprovoked, during one rally\u2014an admission that he knows what Hitler\u2019s manifesto contains, whether or not he has actually read it. \u201cIf you don\u2019t use certain rhetoric,\u201d he told an interviewer<\/a>, \u201cif you don\u2019t use certain words, and maybe they\u2019re not very nice words, nothing will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nHis talk of mass deportation<\/a> is equally calculating. When he suggests that he would target<\/a> both legal and illegal immigrants, or use the military arbitrarily against U.S. citizens, he does so knowing that past dictatorships have used public displays of violence to build popular support. By calling for mass violence, he hints at his admiration for these dictatorships<\/a> but also demonstrates disdain for the rule of law and prepares his followers to accept the idea that his regime could, like its predecessors, break the law with impunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese are not jokes, and Trump is not laughing. Nor are the people around him. Delegates at the Republican National Convention held up <\/a>prefabricated<\/a> signs<\/a>: mass deportation now. Just this week, when Trump was swaying to music at a surreal rally<\/a>, he did so in front of a huge slogan<\/a>: trump was right about everything. This is language borrowed directly from Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist. Soon after the rally, the scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat posted a photograph<\/a> of a building in Mussolini\u2019s Italy displaying his slogan: mussolini is always right.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Atlantic<\/em> Daily: The atmosphere of a Trump rally<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese phrases have not been put on posters and banners at random in the final weeks of an American election season. With less than three weeks left to go, most candidates would be fighting for the middle ground, for the swing voters. Trump is doing the exact opposite. Why? There can be only one answer: because he and his campaign team believe that by using the tactics of the 1930s, they can win. The deliberate dehumanization of whole groups of people; the references to police, to violence, to the \u201cbloodbath\u201d that Trump has said<\/a> will unfold if he doesn\u2019t win; the cultivation of hatred not only against immigrants but also against political opponents\u2014none of this has been used successfully in modern American politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut neither has this rhetoric been tried<\/em> in modern American politics. Several generations of American politicians have assumed that American voters, most of whom learned to pledge allegiance to the flag in school, grew up with the rule of law, and have never experienced occupation or invasion, would be resistant to this kind of language and imagery. Trump is gambling\u2014knowingly and cynically\u2014that we are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNOW IS THE TIME TO BE INFORMED.SIGN IN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nSubscribe<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a>\u00a0is a staff writer at\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Mediaite\">Mediaite<\/a> Aug 13, 2025 Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic, has covered dictators for decades. In an interview from before the 2024 election with Mediaite\u2019s Press Club, she told host Aidan McLaughlin that Donald Trump\u2019s language mirrored rhetoric from Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. She described a disturbing trend in his authoritarian language \u2014 and how it foreshadowed his consolidation of \u201cabsolute power\u201d in a second term as president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TRUMP IS SPEAKING LIKE HITLER, STALIN, AND MUSSOLINI AUGUST 15, 2025 MIKE ZONTA LEAVE A COMMENT EDIT The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics.By Anne Applebaum OCTOBER 18, 2024 (TheAtlantic.com) To support The Atlantic\u2019s journalism, please consider subscribing today. Rhetoric has a history. The words democracy and tyranny were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers became… <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/43250\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→ <\/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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43252,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions\/43252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Rhetoric has a history. The words democracy<\/em> and tyranny<\/em> were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers<\/em> became important in the 17th and 18th centuries. The word vermin,<\/em> as a political term, dates from the 1930s and \u201940s, when both fascists and communists liked to describe their political enemies as vermin, parasites, and blood infections, as well as insects, weeds, dirt, and animals. The term has been revived and reanimated, in an American presidential campaign, with Donald Trump\u2019s description of his opponents<\/a> as \u201cradical-left thugs\u201d who \u201clive like vermin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nENJOY A YEAR OF UNLIMITED ACCESS TO THE ATLANTIC\u2014INCLUDING EVERY STORY ON OUR SITE AND APP, SUBSCRIBER NEWSLETTERS, AND MORE.Become a Subscriber<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nThis language isn\u2019t merely ugly or repellent: These words belong to a particular tradition. Adolf Hitler used these kinds of terms often. In 1938, he praised his compatriots who had helped \u201ccleanse Germany of all those parasites who drank at the well of the despair of the Fatherland and the People.\u201d In occupied Warsaw, a 1941 poster displayed a drawing of a louse with a caricature of a Jewish face. The slogan: \u201cJews are lice: they cause typhus.\u201d Germans, by contrast, were clean, pure, healthy, and vermin-free. Hitler once described the Nazi flag as \u201cthe victorious sign of freedom and the purity of our blood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nPeter Wehner: Have you listened lately to what Trump is saying?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nStalin used the same kind of language at about the same time. He called his opponents the \u201cenemies of the people,\u201d implying that they were not citizens and that they enjoyed no rights. He portrayed them as vermin, pollution, filth that had to be \u201csubjected to ongoing purification,\u201d and he inspired his fellow communists to employ similar rhetoric. In my files, I have the notes from a 1955 meeting of the leaders of the Stasi, the East German secret police, during which one of them called for a struggle against \u201cvermin activities\u201d<\/em> (there is, inevitably, a German word for this: Sch\u00e4dlingst\u00e4tigkeiten<\/em>), by which he meant the purge and arrest of the regime\u2019s critics. In this same era, the Stasi forcibly moved suspicious people away from the border with West Germany, a project nicknamed \u201cOperation Vermin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis kind of language was not limited to Europe. Mao Zedong also described his political opponents as \u201cpoisonous weeds.\u201d Pol Pot spoke of \u201ccleansing\u201d hundreds of thousands of his compatriots so that Cambodia would be \u201cpurified.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nDON\u2019T MISS WHAT MATTERS. SIGN UP FOR THE ATLANTIC DAILY NEWSLETTER.Email AddressSign Up<\/p>\n\n\n\nYour newsletter subscriptions are subject to The Atlantic\u2019s Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms and Conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn each of these very different societies, the purpose of this kind of rhetoric was the same. If you connect your opponents with disease, illness, and poisoned blood, if you dehumanize them as insects or animals, if you speak of squashing them or cleansing them as if they were pests or bacteria, then you can much more easily arrest them, deprive them of rights, exclude them, or even kill them. If they are parasites, they aren\u2019t human. If they are vermin, they don\u2019t get to enjoy freedom of speech, or freedoms of any kind. And if you squash them, you won\u2019t be held accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRECOMMENDED READING<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n<\/a>How the Ballpoint Pen Killed Cursive<\/a>JOSH GIESBRECHT<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<\/a>Choose Enjoyment Over Pleasure<\/a>ARTHUR C. BROOKS<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<\/a>The Myth of the Kindly General Lee<\/a>ADAM SERWER<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nUntil recently, this kind of language was not a normal part of American presidential politics. Even George Wallace\u2019s notorious, racist, neo-Confederate 1963 speech, his inaugural speech as Alabama governor and the prelude to his first presidential campaign, avoided such language. Wallace called for \u201csegregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.\u201d But he did not speak of his political opponents as \u201cvermin\u201d or talk about them poisoning the nation\u2019s blood. Franklin D. Roosevelt\u2019s Executive Order 9066<\/a>, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps following the outbreak of World War II, spoke of \u201calien enemies\u201d but not parasites.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRead: Trump isn\u2019t bluffing<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the 2024 campaign, that line has been crossed. Trump blurs the distinction between illegal immigrants and legal immigrants\u2014the latter including his wife, his late ex-wife, the in-laws of his running mate, and many others. He has said of immigrants<\/a>, \u201cThey\u2019re poisoning the blood of our country\u201d and \u201cThey\u2019re destroying the blood of our country.\u201d He has claimed<\/a> that many have \u201cbad genes.\u201d He has also been more explicit: \u201cThey\u2019re not humans; they\u2019re animals\u201d; they are \u201ccold-blooded killers.\u201d He refers more broadly<\/a> to his opponents\u2014American citizens, some of whom are elected officials\u2014as \u201cthe enemy from within \u2026 sick people, radical-left lunatics.\u201d Not only do they have no rights; they should be \u201chandled by,\u201d he has said, \u201cif necessary, National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nMAKE YOUR INBOX MORE INTERESTING WITH NEWSLETTERS FROM YOUR FAVORITE ATLANTIC WRITERS.Browse Newsletters<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn using this language, Trump knows exactly what he is doing<\/a>. He understands which era and what kind of politics this language evokes. \u201cI haven\u2019t read Mein Kampf<\/em>,\u201d he declared, unprovoked, during one rally\u2014an admission that he knows what Hitler\u2019s manifesto contains, whether or not he has actually read it. \u201cIf you don\u2019t use certain rhetoric,\u201d he told an interviewer<\/a>, \u201cif you don\u2019t use certain words, and maybe they\u2019re not very nice words, nothing will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nHis talk of mass deportation<\/a> is equally calculating. When he suggests that he would target<\/a> both legal and illegal immigrants, or use the military arbitrarily against U.S. citizens, he does so knowing that past dictatorships have used public displays of violence to build popular support. By calling for mass violence, he hints at his admiration for these dictatorships<\/a> but also demonstrates disdain for the rule of law and prepares his followers to accept the idea that his regime could, like its predecessors, break the law with impunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese are not jokes, and Trump is not laughing. Nor are the people around him. Delegates at the Republican National Convention held up <\/a>prefabricated<\/a> signs<\/a>: mass deportation now. Just this week, when Trump was swaying to music at a surreal rally<\/a>, he did so in front of a huge slogan<\/a>: trump was right about everything. This is language borrowed directly from Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist. Soon after the rally, the scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat posted a photograph<\/a> of a building in Mussolini\u2019s Italy displaying his slogan: mussolini is always right.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Atlantic<\/em> Daily: The atmosphere of a Trump rally<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese phrases have not been put on posters and banners at random in the final weeks of an American election season. With less than three weeks left to go, most candidates would be fighting for the middle ground, for the swing voters. Trump is doing the exact opposite. Why? There can be only one answer: because he and his campaign team believe that by using the tactics of the 1930s, they can win. The deliberate dehumanization of whole groups of people; the references to police, to violence, to the \u201cbloodbath\u201d that Trump has said<\/a> will unfold if he doesn\u2019t win; the cultivation of hatred not only against immigrants but also against political opponents\u2014none of this has been used successfully in modern American politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut neither has this rhetoric been tried<\/em> in modern American politics. Several generations of American politicians have assumed that American voters, most of whom learned to pledge allegiance to the flag in school, grew up with the rule of law, and have never experienced occupation or invasion, would be resistant to this kind of language and imagery. Trump is gambling\u2014knowingly and cynically\u2014that we are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNOW IS THE TIME TO BE INFORMED.SIGN IN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nSubscribe<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a>\u00a0is a staff writer at\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Mediaite\">Mediaite<\/a> Aug 13, 2025 Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic, has covered dictators for decades. In an interview from before the 2024 election with Mediaite\u2019s Press Club, she told host Aidan McLaughlin that Donald Trump\u2019s language mirrored rhetoric from Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. She described a disturbing trend in his authoritarian language \u2014 and how it foreshadowed his consolidation of \u201cabsolute power\u201d in a second term as president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TRUMP IS SPEAKING LIKE HITLER, STALIN, AND MUSSOLINI AUGUST 15, 2025 MIKE ZONTA LEAVE A COMMENT EDIT The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics.By Anne Applebaum OCTOBER 18, 2024 (TheAtlantic.com) To support The Atlantic\u2019s journalism, please consider subscribing today. Rhetoric has a history. The words democracy and tyranny were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers became… <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/43250\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→ <\/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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43252,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions\/43252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
ENJOY A YEAR OF UNLIMITED ACCESS TO THE ATLANTIC\u2014INCLUDING EVERY STORY ON OUR SITE AND APP, SUBSCRIBER NEWSLETTERS, AND MORE.Become a Subscriber<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nThis language isn\u2019t merely ugly or repellent: These words belong to a particular tradition. Adolf Hitler used these kinds of terms often. In 1938, he praised his compatriots who had helped \u201ccleanse Germany of all those parasites who drank at the well of the despair of the Fatherland and the People.\u201d In occupied Warsaw, a 1941 poster displayed a drawing of a louse with a caricature of a Jewish face. The slogan: \u201cJews are lice: they cause typhus.\u201d Germans, by contrast, were clean, pure, healthy, and vermin-free. Hitler once described the Nazi flag as \u201cthe victorious sign of freedom and the purity of our blood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nPeter Wehner: Have you listened lately to what Trump is saying?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nStalin used the same kind of language at about the same time. He called his opponents the \u201cenemies of the people,\u201d implying that they were not citizens and that they enjoyed no rights. He portrayed them as vermin, pollution, filth that had to be \u201csubjected to ongoing purification,\u201d and he inspired his fellow communists to employ similar rhetoric. In my files, I have the notes from a 1955 meeting of the leaders of the Stasi, the East German secret police, during which one of them called for a struggle against \u201cvermin activities\u201d<\/em> (there is, inevitably, a German word for this: Sch\u00e4dlingst\u00e4tigkeiten<\/em>), by which he meant the purge and arrest of the regime\u2019s critics. In this same era, the Stasi forcibly moved suspicious people away from the border with West Germany, a project nicknamed \u201cOperation Vermin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis kind of language was not limited to Europe. Mao Zedong also described his political opponents as \u201cpoisonous weeds.\u201d Pol Pot spoke of \u201ccleansing\u201d hundreds of thousands of his compatriots so that Cambodia would be \u201cpurified.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nDON\u2019T MISS WHAT MATTERS. SIGN UP FOR THE ATLANTIC DAILY NEWSLETTER.Email AddressSign Up<\/p>\n\n\n\nYour newsletter subscriptions are subject to The Atlantic\u2019s Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms and Conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn each of these very different societies, the purpose of this kind of rhetoric was the same. If you connect your opponents with disease, illness, and poisoned blood, if you dehumanize them as insects or animals, if you speak of squashing them or cleansing them as if they were pests or bacteria, then you can much more easily arrest them, deprive them of rights, exclude them, or even kill them. If they are parasites, they aren\u2019t human. If they are vermin, they don\u2019t get to enjoy freedom of speech, or freedoms of any kind. And if you squash them, you won\u2019t be held accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRECOMMENDED READING<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n<\/a>How the Ballpoint Pen Killed Cursive<\/a>JOSH GIESBRECHT<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<\/a>Choose Enjoyment Over Pleasure<\/a>ARTHUR C. BROOKS<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<\/a>The Myth of the Kindly General Lee<\/a>ADAM SERWER<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nUntil recently, this kind of language was not a normal part of American presidential politics. Even George Wallace\u2019s notorious, racist, neo-Confederate 1963 speech, his inaugural speech as Alabama governor and the prelude to his first presidential campaign, avoided such language. Wallace called for \u201csegregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.\u201d But he did not speak of his political opponents as \u201cvermin\u201d or talk about them poisoning the nation\u2019s blood. Franklin D. Roosevelt\u2019s Executive Order 9066<\/a>, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps following the outbreak of World War II, spoke of \u201calien enemies\u201d but not parasites.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRead: Trump isn\u2019t bluffing<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the 2024 campaign, that line has been crossed. Trump blurs the distinction between illegal immigrants and legal immigrants\u2014the latter including his wife, his late ex-wife, the in-laws of his running mate, and many others. He has said of immigrants<\/a>, \u201cThey\u2019re poisoning the blood of our country\u201d and \u201cThey\u2019re destroying the blood of our country.\u201d He has claimed<\/a> that many have \u201cbad genes.\u201d He has also been more explicit: \u201cThey\u2019re not humans; they\u2019re animals\u201d; they are \u201ccold-blooded killers.\u201d He refers more broadly<\/a> to his opponents\u2014American citizens, some of whom are elected officials\u2014as \u201cthe enemy from within \u2026 sick people, radical-left lunatics.\u201d Not only do they have no rights; they should be \u201chandled by,\u201d he has said, \u201cif necessary, National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nMAKE YOUR INBOX MORE INTERESTING WITH NEWSLETTERS FROM YOUR FAVORITE ATLANTIC WRITERS.Browse Newsletters<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn using this language, Trump knows exactly what he is doing<\/a>. He understands which era and what kind of politics this language evokes. \u201cI haven\u2019t read Mein Kampf<\/em>,\u201d he declared, unprovoked, during one rally\u2014an admission that he knows what Hitler\u2019s manifesto contains, whether or not he has actually read it. \u201cIf you don\u2019t use certain rhetoric,\u201d he told an interviewer<\/a>, \u201cif you don\u2019t use certain words, and maybe they\u2019re not very nice words, nothing will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nHis talk of mass deportation<\/a> is equally calculating. When he suggests that he would target<\/a> both legal and illegal immigrants, or use the military arbitrarily against U.S. citizens, he does so knowing that past dictatorships have used public displays of violence to build popular support. By calling for mass violence, he hints at his admiration for these dictatorships<\/a> but also demonstrates disdain for the rule of law and prepares his followers to accept the idea that his regime could, like its predecessors, break the law with impunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese are not jokes, and Trump is not laughing. Nor are the people around him. Delegates at the Republican National Convention held up <\/a>prefabricated<\/a> signs<\/a>: mass deportation now. Just this week, when Trump was swaying to music at a surreal rally<\/a>, he did so in front of a huge slogan<\/a>: trump was right about everything. This is language borrowed directly from Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist. Soon after the rally, the scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat posted a photograph<\/a> of a building in Mussolini\u2019s Italy displaying his slogan: mussolini is always right.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Atlantic<\/em> Daily: The atmosphere of a Trump rally<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese phrases have not been put on posters and banners at random in the final weeks of an American election season. With less than three weeks left to go, most candidates would be fighting for the middle ground, for the swing voters. Trump is doing the exact opposite. Why? There can be only one answer: because he and his campaign team believe that by using the tactics of the 1930s, they can win. The deliberate dehumanization of whole groups of people; the references to police, to violence, to the \u201cbloodbath\u201d that Trump has said<\/a> will unfold if he doesn\u2019t win; the cultivation of hatred not only against immigrants but also against political opponents\u2014none of this has been used successfully in modern American politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut neither has this rhetoric been tried<\/em> in modern American politics. Several generations of American politicians have assumed that American voters, most of whom learned to pledge allegiance to the flag in school, grew up with the rule of law, and have never experienced occupation or invasion, would be resistant to this kind of language and imagery. Trump is gambling\u2014knowingly and cynically\u2014that we are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNOW IS THE TIME TO BE INFORMED.SIGN IN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nSubscribe<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a>\u00a0is a staff writer at\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Mediaite\">Mediaite<\/a> Aug 13, 2025 Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic, has covered dictators for decades. In an interview from before the 2024 election with Mediaite\u2019s Press Club, she told host Aidan McLaughlin that Donald Trump\u2019s language mirrored rhetoric from Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. She described a disturbing trend in his authoritarian language \u2014 and how it foreshadowed his consolidation of \u201cabsolute power\u201d in a second term as president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TRUMP IS SPEAKING LIKE HITLER, STALIN, AND MUSSOLINI AUGUST 15, 2025 MIKE ZONTA LEAVE A COMMENT EDIT The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics.By Anne Applebaum OCTOBER 18, 2024 (TheAtlantic.com) To support The Atlantic\u2019s journalism, please consider subscribing today. Rhetoric has a history. The words democracy and tyranny were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers became… <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/43250\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→ <\/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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43252,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions\/43252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
This language isn\u2019t merely ugly or repellent: These words belong to a particular tradition. Adolf Hitler used these kinds of terms often. In 1938, he praised his compatriots who had helped \u201ccleanse Germany of all those parasites who drank at the well of the despair of the Fatherland and the People.\u201d In occupied Warsaw, a 1941 poster displayed a drawing of a louse with a caricature of a Jewish face. The slogan: \u201cJews are lice: they cause typhus.\u201d Germans, by contrast, were clean, pure, healthy, and vermin-free. Hitler once described the Nazi flag as \u201cthe victorious sign of freedom and the purity of our blood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Peter Wehner: Have you listened lately to what Trump is saying?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nStalin used the same kind of language at about the same time. He called his opponents the \u201cenemies of the people,\u201d implying that they were not citizens and that they enjoyed no rights. He portrayed them as vermin, pollution, filth that had to be \u201csubjected to ongoing purification,\u201d and he inspired his fellow communists to employ similar rhetoric. In my files, I have the notes from a 1955 meeting of the leaders of the Stasi, the East German secret police, during which one of them called for a struggle against \u201cvermin activities\u201d<\/em> (there is, inevitably, a German word for this: Sch\u00e4dlingst\u00e4tigkeiten<\/em>), by which he meant the purge and arrest of the regime\u2019s critics. In this same era, the Stasi forcibly moved suspicious people away from the border with West Germany, a project nicknamed \u201cOperation Vermin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis kind of language was not limited to Europe. Mao Zedong also described his political opponents as \u201cpoisonous weeds.\u201d Pol Pot spoke of \u201ccleansing\u201d hundreds of thousands of his compatriots so that Cambodia would be \u201cpurified.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nDON\u2019T MISS WHAT MATTERS. SIGN UP FOR THE ATLANTIC DAILY NEWSLETTER.Email AddressSign Up<\/p>\n\n\n\nYour newsletter subscriptions are subject to The Atlantic\u2019s Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms and Conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn each of these very different societies, the purpose of this kind of rhetoric was the same. If you connect your opponents with disease, illness, and poisoned blood, if you dehumanize them as insects or animals, if you speak of squashing them or cleansing them as if they were pests or bacteria, then you can much more easily arrest them, deprive them of rights, exclude them, or even kill them. If they are parasites, they aren\u2019t human. If they are vermin, they don\u2019t get to enjoy freedom of speech, or freedoms of any kind. And if you squash them, you won\u2019t be held accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRECOMMENDED READING<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n<\/a>How the Ballpoint Pen Killed Cursive<\/a>JOSH GIESBRECHT<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<\/a>Choose Enjoyment Over Pleasure<\/a>ARTHUR C. BROOKS<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<\/a>The Myth of the Kindly General Lee<\/a>ADAM SERWER<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nUntil recently, this kind of language was not a normal part of American presidential politics. Even George Wallace\u2019s notorious, racist, neo-Confederate 1963 speech, his inaugural speech as Alabama governor and the prelude to his first presidential campaign, avoided such language. Wallace called for \u201csegregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.\u201d But he did not speak of his political opponents as \u201cvermin\u201d or talk about them poisoning the nation\u2019s blood. Franklin D. Roosevelt\u2019s Executive Order 9066<\/a>, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps following the outbreak of World War II, spoke of \u201calien enemies\u201d but not parasites.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRead: Trump isn\u2019t bluffing<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the 2024 campaign, that line has been crossed. Trump blurs the distinction between illegal immigrants and legal immigrants\u2014the latter including his wife, his late ex-wife, the in-laws of his running mate, and many others. He has said of immigrants<\/a>, \u201cThey\u2019re poisoning the blood of our country\u201d and \u201cThey\u2019re destroying the blood of our country.\u201d He has claimed<\/a> that many have \u201cbad genes.\u201d He has also been more explicit: \u201cThey\u2019re not humans; they\u2019re animals\u201d; they are \u201ccold-blooded killers.\u201d He refers more broadly<\/a> to his opponents\u2014American citizens, some of whom are elected officials\u2014as \u201cthe enemy from within \u2026 sick people, radical-left lunatics.\u201d Not only do they have no rights; they should be \u201chandled by,\u201d he has said, \u201cif necessary, National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nMAKE YOUR INBOX MORE INTERESTING WITH NEWSLETTERS FROM YOUR FAVORITE ATLANTIC WRITERS.Browse Newsletters<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn using this language, Trump knows exactly what he is doing<\/a>. He understands which era and what kind of politics this language evokes. \u201cI haven\u2019t read Mein Kampf<\/em>,\u201d he declared, unprovoked, during one rally\u2014an admission that he knows what Hitler\u2019s manifesto contains, whether or not he has actually read it. \u201cIf you don\u2019t use certain rhetoric,\u201d he told an interviewer<\/a>, \u201cif you don\u2019t use certain words, and maybe they\u2019re not very nice words, nothing will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nHis talk of mass deportation<\/a> is equally calculating. When he suggests that he would target<\/a> both legal and illegal immigrants, or use the military arbitrarily against U.S. citizens, he does so knowing that past dictatorships have used public displays of violence to build popular support. By calling for mass violence, he hints at his admiration for these dictatorships<\/a> but also demonstrates disdain for the rule of law and prepares his followers to accept the idea that his regime could, like its predecessors, break the law with impunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese are not jokes, and Trump is not laughing. Nor are the people around him. Delegates at the Republican National Convention held up <\/a>prefabricated<\/a> signs<\/a>: mass deportation now. Just this week, when Trump was swaying to music at a surreal rally<\/a>, he did so in front of a huge slogan<\/a>: trump was right about everything. This is language borrowed directly from Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist. Soon after the rally, the scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat posted a photograph<\/a> of a building in Mussolini\u2019s Italy displaying his slogan: mussolini is always right.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Atlantic<\/em> Daily: The atmosphere of a Trump rally<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese phrases have not been put on posters and banners at random in the final weeks of an American election season. With less than three weeks left to go, most candidates would be fighting for the middle ground, for the swing voters. Trump is doing the exact opposite. Why? There can be only one answer: because he and his campaign team believe that by using the tactics of the 1930s, they can win. The deliberate dehumanization of whole groups of people; the references to police, to violence, to the \u201cbloodbath\u201d that Trump has said<\/a> will unfold if he doesn\u2019t win; the cultivation of hatred not only against immigrants but also against political opponents\u2014none of this has been used successfully in modern American politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut neither has this rhetoric been tried<\/em> in modern American politics. Several generations of American politicians have assumed that American voters, most of whom learned to pledge allegiance to the flag in school, grew up with the rule of law, and have never experienced occupation or invasion, would be resistant to this kind of language and imagery. Trump is gambling\u2014knowingly and cynically\u2014that we are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNOW IS THE TIME TO BE INFORMED.SIGN IN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nSubscribe<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a>\u00a0is a staff writer at\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Mediaite\">Mediaite<\/a> Aug 13, 2025 Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic, has covered dictators for decades. In an interview from before the 2024 election with Mediaite\u2019s Press Club, she told host Aidan McLaughlin that Donald Trump\u2019s language mirrored rhetoric from Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. She described a disturbing trend in his authoritarian language \u2014 and how it foreshadowed his consolidation of \u201cabsolute power\u201d in a second term as president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TRUMP IS SPEAKING LIKE HITLER, STALIN, AND MUSSOLINI AUGUST 15, 2025 MIKE ZONTA LEAVE A COMMENT EDIT The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics.By Anne Applebaum OCTOBER 18, 2024 (TheAtlantic.com) To support The Atlantic\u2019s journalism, please consider subscribing today. Rhetoric has a history. The words democracy and tyranny were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers became… <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/43250\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→ <\/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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43252,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions\/43252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Stalin used the same kind of language at about the same time. He called his opponents the \u201cenemies of the people,\u201d implying that they were not citizens and that they enjoyed no rights. He portrayed them as vermin, pollution, filth that had to be \u201csubjected to ongoing purification,\u201d and he inspired his fellow communists to employ similar rhetoric. In my files, I have the notes from a 1955 meeting of the leaders of the Stasi, the East German secret police, during which one of them called for a struggle against \u201cvermin activities\u201d<\/em> (there is, inevitably, a German word for this: Sch\u00e4dlingst\u00e4tigkeiten<\/em>), by which he meant the purge and arrest of the regime\u2019s critics. In this same era, the Stasi forcibly moved suspicious people away from the border with West Germany, a project nicknamed \u201cOperation Vermin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis kind of language was not limited to Europe. Mao Zedong also described his political opponents as \u201cpoisonous weeds.\u201d Pol Pot spoke of \u201ccleansing\u201d hundreds of thousands of his compatriots so that Cambodia would be \u201cpurified.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nDON\u2019T MISS WHAT MATTERS. SIGN UP FOR THE ATLANTIC DAILY NEWSLETTER.Email AddressSign Up<\/p>\n\n\n\nYour newsletter subscriptions are subject to The Atlantic\u2019s Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms and Conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn each of these very different societies, the purpose of this kind of rhetoric was the same. If you connect your opponents with disease, illness, and poisoned blood, if you dehumanize them as insects or animals, if you speak of squashing them or cleansing them as if they were pests or bacteria, then you can much more easily arrest them, deprive them of rights, exclude them, or even kill them. If they are parasites, they aren\u2019t human. If they are vermin, they don\u2019t get to enjoy freedom of speech, or freedoms of any kind. And if you squash them, you won\u2019t be held accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRECOMMENDED READING<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n<\/a>How the Ballpoint Pen Killed Cursive<\/a>JOSH GIESBRECHT<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<\/a>Choose Enjoyment Over Pleasure<\/a>ARTHUR C. BROOKS<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<\/a>The Myth of the Kindly General Lee<\/a>ADAM SERWER<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nUntil recently, this kind of language was not a normal part of American presidential politics. Even George Wallace\u2019s notorious, racist, neo-Confederate 1963 speech, his inaugural speech as Alabama governor and the prelude to his first presidential campaign, avoided such language. Wallace called for \u201csegregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.\u201d But he did not speak of his political opponents as \u201cvermin\u201d or talk about them poisoning the nation\u2019s blood. Franklin D. Roosevelt\u2019s Executive Order 9066<\/a>, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps following the outbreak of World War II, spoke of \u201calien enemies\u201d but not parasites.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRead: Trump isn\u2019t bluffing<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the 2024 campaign, that line has been crossed. Trump blurs the distinction between illegal immigrants and legal immigrants\u2014the latter including his wife, his late ex-wife, the in-laws of his running mate, and many others. He has said of immigrants<\/a>, \u201cThey\u2019re poisoning the blood of our country\u201d and \u201cThey\u2019re destroying the blood of our country.\u201d He has claimed<\/a> that many have \u201cbad genes.\u201d He has also been more explicit: \u201cThey\u2019re not humans; they\u2019re animals\u201d; they are \u201ccold-blooded killers.\u201d He refers more broadly<\/a> to his opponents\u2014American citizens, some of whom are elected officials\u2014as \u201cthe enemy from within \u2026 sick people, radical-left lunatics.\u201d Not only do they have no rights; they should be \u201chandled by,\u201d he has said, \u201cif necessary, National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nMAKE YOUR INBOX MORE INTERESTING WITH NEWSLETTERS FROM YOUR FAVORITE ATLANTIC WRITERS.Browse Newsletters<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn using this language, Trump knows exactly what he is doing<\/a>. He understands which era and what kind of politics this language evokes. \u201cI haven\u2019t read Mein Kampf<\/em>,\u201d he declared, unprovoked, during one rally\u2014an admission that he knows what Hitler\u2019s manifesto contains, whether or not he has actually read it. \u201cIf you don\u2019t use certain rhetoric,\u201d he told an interviewer<\/a>, \u201cif you don\u2019t use certain words, and maybe they\u2019re not very nice words, nothing will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nHis talk of mass deportation<\/a> is equally calculating. When he suggests that he would target<\/a> both legal and illegal immigrants, or use the military arbitrarily against U.S. citizens, he does so knowing that past dictatorships have used public displays of violence to build popular support. By calling for mass violence, he hints at his admiration for these dictatorships<\/a> but also demonstrates disdain for the rule of law and prepares his followers to accept the idea that his regime could, like its predecessors, break the law with impunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese are not jokes, and Trump is not laughing. Nor are the people around him. Delegates at the Republican National Convention held up <\/a>prefabricated<\/a> signs<\/a>: mass deportation now. Just this week, when Trump was swaying to music at a surreal rally<\/a>, he did so in front of a huge slogan<\/a>: trump was right about everything. This is language borrowed directly from Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist. Soon after the rally, the scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat posted a photograph<\/a> of a building in Mussolini\u2019s Italy displaying his slogan: mussolini is always right.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Atlantic<\/em> Daily: The atmosphere of a Trump rally<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese phrases have not been put on posters and banners at random in the final weeks of an American election season. With less than three weeks left to go, most candidates would be fighting for the middle ground, for the swing voters. Trump is doing the exact opposite. Why? There can be only one answer: because he and his campaign team believe that by using the tactics of the 1930s, they can win. The deliberate dehumanization of whole groups of people; the references to police, to violence, to the \u201cbloodbath\u201d that Trump has said<\/a> will unfold if he doesn\u2019t win; the cultivation of hatred not only against immigrants but also against political opponents\u2014none of this has been used successfully in modern American politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut neither has this rhetoric been tried<\/em> in modern American politics. Several generations of American politicians have assumed that American voters, most of whom learned to pledge allegiance to the flag in school, grew up with the rule of law, and have never experienced occupation or invasion, would be resistant to this kind of language and imagery. Trump is gambling\u2014knowingly and cynically\u2014that we are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNOW IS THE TIME TO BE INFORMED.SIGN IN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nSubscribe<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a>\u00a0is a staff writer at\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Mediaite\">Mediaite<\/a> Aug 13, 2025 Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic, has covered dictators for decades. In an interview from before the 2024 election with Mediaite\u2019s Press Club, she told host Aidan McLaughlin that Donald Trump\u2019s language mirrored rhetoric from Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. She described a disturbing trend in his authoritarian language \u2014 and how it foreshadowed his consolidation of \u201cabsolute power\u201d in a second term as president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TRUMP IS SPEAKING LIKE HITLER, STALIN, AND MUSSOLINI AUGUST 15, 2025 MIKE ZONTA LEAVE A COMMENT EDIT The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics.By Anne Applebaum OCTOBER 18, 2024 (TheAtlantic.com) To support The Atlantic\u2019s journalism, please consider subscribing today. Rhetoric has a history. The words democracy and tyranny were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers became… <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/43250\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→ <\/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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43252,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions\/43252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
This kind of language was not limited to Europe. Mao Zedong also described his political opponents as \u201cpoisonous weeds.\u201d Pol Pot spoke of \u201ccleansing\u201d hundreds of thousands of his compatriots so that Cambodia would be \u201cpurified.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DON\u2019T MISS WHAT MATTERS. SIGN UP FOR THE ATLANTIC DAILY NEWSLETTER.Email AddressSign Up<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your newsletter subscriptions are subject to The Atlantic\u2019s Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms and Conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn each of these very different societies, the purpose of this kind of rhetoric was the same. If you connect your opponents with disease, illness, and poisoned blood, if you dehumanize them as insects or animals, if you speak of squashing them or cleansing them as if they were pests or bacteria, then you can much more easily arrest them, deprive them of rights, exclude them, or even kill them. If they are parasites, they aren\u2019t human. If they are vermin, they don\u2019t get to enjoy freedom of speech, or freedoms of any kind. And if you squash them, you won\u2019t be held accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRECOMMENDED READING<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n<\/a>How the Ballpoint Pen Killed Cursive<\/a>JOSH GIESBRECHT<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<\/a>Choose Enjoyment Over Pleasure<\/a>ARTHUR C. BROOKS<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<\/a>The Myth of the Kindly General Lee<\/a>ADAM SERWER<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nUntil recently, this kind of language was not a normal part of American presidential politics. Even George Wallace\u2019s notorious, racist, neo-Confederate 1963 speech, his inaugural speech as Alabama governor and the prelude to his first presidential campaign, avoided such language. Wallace called for \u201csegregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.\u201d But he did not speak of his political opponents as \u201cvermin\u201d or talk about them poisoning the nation\u2019s blood. Franklin D. Roosevelt\u2019s Executive Order 9066<\/a>, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps following the outbreak of World War II, spoke of \u201calien enemies\u201d but not parasites.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRead: Trump isn\u2019t bluffing<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the 2024 campaign, that line has been crossed. Trump blurs the distinction between illegal immigrants and legal immigrants\u2014the latter including his wife, his late ex-wife, the in-laws of his running mate, and many others. He has said of immigrants<\/a>, \u201cThey\u2019re poisoning the blood of our country\u201d and \u201cThey\u2019re destroying the blood of our country.\u201d He has claimed<\/a> that many have \u201cbad genes.\u201d He has also been more explicit: \u201cThey\u2019re not humans; they\u2019re animals\u201d; they are \u201ccold-blooded killers.\u201d He refers more broadly<\/a> to his opponents\u2014American citizens, some of whom are elected officials\u2014as \u201cthe enemy from within \u2026 sick people, radical-left lunatics.\u201d Not only do they have no rights; they should be \u201chandled by,\u201d he has said, \u201cif necessary, National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nMAKE YOUR INBOX MORE INTERESTING WITH NEWSLETTERS FROM YOUR FAVORITE ATLANTIC WRITERS.Browse Newsletters<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn using this language, Trump knows exactly what he is doing<\/a>. He understands which era and what kind of politics this language evokes. \u201cI haven\u2019t read Mein Kampf<\/em>,\u201d he declared, unprovoked, during one rally\u2014an admission that he knows what Hitler\u2019s manifesto contains, whether or not he has actually read it. \u201cIf you don\u2019t use certain rhetoric,\u201d he told an interviewer<\/a>, \u201cif you don\u2019t use certain words, and maybe they\u2019re not very nice words, nothing will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nHis talk of mass deportation<\/a> is equally calculating. When he suggests that he would target<\/a> both legal and illegal immigrants, or use the military arbitrarily against U.S. citizens, he does so knowing that past dictatorships have used public displays of violence to build popular support. By calling for mass violence, he hints at his admiration for these dictatorships<\/a> but also demonstrates disdain for the rule of law and prepares his followers to accept the idea that his regime could, like its predecessors, break the law with impunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese are not jokes, and Trump is not laughing. Nor are the people around him. Delegates at the Republican National Convention held up <\/a>prefabricated<\/a> signs<\/a>: mass deportation now. Just this week, when Trump was swaying to music at a surreal rally<\/a>, he did so in front of a huge slogan<\/a>: trump was right about everything. This is language borrowed directly from Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist. Soon after the rally, the scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat posted a photograph<\/a> of a building in Mussolini\u2019s Italy displaying his slogan: mussolini is always right.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Atlantic<\/em> Daily: The atmosphere of a Trump rally<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese phrases have not been put on posters and banners at random in the final weeks of an American election season. With less than three weeks left to go, most candidates would be fighting for the middle ground, for the swing voters. Trump is doing the exact opposite. Why? There can be only one answer: because he and his campaign team believe that by using the tactics of the 1930s, they can win. The deliberate dehumanization of whole groups of people; the references to police, to violence, to the \u201cbloodbath\u201d that Trump has said<\/a> will unfold if he doesn\u2019t win; the cultivation of hatred not only against immigrants but also against political opponents\u2014none of this has been used successfully in modern American politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut neither has this rhetoric been tried<\/em> in modern American politics. Several generations of American politicians have assumed that American voters, most of whom learned to pledge allegiance to the flag in school, grew up with the rule of law, and have never experienced occupation or invasion, would be resistant to this kind of language and imagery. Trump is gambling\u2014knowingly and cynically\u2014that we are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNOW IS THE TIME TO BE INFORMED.SIGN IN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nSubscribe<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a>\u00a0is a staff writer at\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Mediaite\">Mediaite<\/a> Aug 13, 2025 Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic, has covered dictators for decades. In an interview from before the 2024 election with Mediaite\u2019s Press Club, she told host Aidan McLaughlin that Donald Trump\u2019s language mirrored rhetoric from Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. She described a disturbing trend in his authoritarian language \u2014 and how it foreshadowed his consolidation of \u201cabsolute power\u201d in a second term as president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TRUMP IS SPEAKING LIKE HITLER, STALIN, AND MUSSOLINI AUGUST 15, 2025 MIKE ZONTA LEAVE A COMMENT EDIT The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics.By Anne Applebaum OCTOBER 18, 2024 (TheAtlantic.com) To support The Atlantic\u2019s journalism, please consider subscribing today. Rhetoric has a history. The words democracy and tyranny were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers became… <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/43250\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→ <\/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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43252,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions\/43252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
In each of these very different societies, the purpose of this kind of rhetoric was the same. If you connect your opponents with disease, illness, and poisoned blood, if you dehumanize them as insects or animals, if you speak of squashing them or cleansing them as if they were pests or bacteria, then you can much more easily arrest them, deprive them of rights, exclude them, or even kill them. If they are parasites, they aren\u2019t human. If they are vermin, they don\u2019t get to enjoy freedom of speech, or freedoms of any kind. And if you squash them, you won\u2019t be held accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until recently, this kind of language was not a normal part of American presidential politics. Even George Wallace\u2019s notorious, racist, neo-Confederate 1963 speech, his inaugural speech as Alabama governor and the prelude to his first presidential campaign, avoided such language. Wallace called for \u201csegregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.\u201d But he did not speak of his political opponents as \u201cvermin\u201d or talk about them poisoning the nation\u2019s blood. Franklin D. Roosevelt\u2019s Executive Order 9066<\/a>, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps following the outbreak of World War II, spoke of \u201calien enemies\u201d but not parasites.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRead: Trump isn\u2019t bluffing<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the 2024 campaign, that line has been crossed. Trump blurs the distinction between illegal immigrants and legal immigrants\u2014the latter including his wife, his late ex-wife, the in-laws of his running mate, and many others. He has said of immigrants<\/a>, \u201cThey\u2019re poisoning the blood of our country\u201d and \u201cThey\u2019re destroying the blood of our country.\u201d He has claimed<\/a> that many have \u201cbad genes.\u201d He has also been more explicit: \u201cThey\u2019re not humans; they\u2019re animals\u201d; they are \u201ccold-blooded killers.\u201d He refers more broadly<\/a> to his opponents\u2014American citizens, some of whom are elected officials\u2014as \u201cthe enemy from within \u2026 sick people, radical-left lunatics.\u201d Not only do they have no rights; they should be \u201chandled by,\u201d he has said, \u201cif necessary, National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nMAKE YOUR INBOX MORE INTERESTING WITH NEWSLETTERS FROM YOUR FAVORITE ATLANTIC WRITERS.Browse Newsletters<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn using this language, Trump knows exactly what he is doing<\/a>. He understands which era and what kind of politics this language evokes. \u201cI haven\u2019t read Mein Kampf<\/em>,\u201d he declared, unprovoked, during one rally\u2014an admission that he knows what Hitler\u2019s manifesto contains, whether or not he has actually read it. \u201cIf you don\u2019t use certain rhetoric,\u201d he told an interviewer<\/a>, \u201cif you don\u2019t use certain words, and maybe they\u2019re not very nice words, nothing will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nHis talk of mass deportation<\/a> is equally calculating. When he suggests that he would target<\/a> both legal and illegal immigrants, or use the military arbitrarily against U.S. citizens, he does so knowing that past dictatorships have used public displays of violence to build popular support. By calling for mass violence, he hints at his admiration for these dictatorships<\/a> but also demonstrates disdain for the rule of law and prepares his followers to accept the idea that his regime could, like its predecessors, break the law with impunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese are not jokes, and Trump is not laughing. Nor are the people around him. Delegates at the Republican National Convention held up <\/a>prefabricated<\/a> signs<\/a>: mass deportation now. Just this week, when Trump was swaying to music at a surreal rally<\/a>, he did so in front of a huge slogan<\/a>: trump was right about everything. This is language borrowed directly from Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist. Soon after the rally, the scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat posted a photograph<\/a> of a building in Mussolini\u2019s Italy displaying his slogan: mussolini is always right.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Atlantic<\/em> Daily: The atmosphere of a Trump rally<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese phrases have not been put on posters and banners at random in the final weeks of an American election season. With less than three weeks left to go, most candidates would be fighting for the middle ground, for the swing voters. Trump is doing the exact opposite. Why? There can be only one answer: because he and his campaign team believe that by using the tactics of the 1930s, they can win. The deliberate dehumanization of whole groups of people; the references to police, to violence, to the \u201cbloodbath\u201d that Trump has said<\/a> will unfold if he doesn\u2019t win; the cultivation of hatred not only against immigrants but also against political opponents\u2014none of this has been used successfully in modern American politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut neither has this rhetoric been tried<\/em> in modern American politics. Several generations of American politicians have assumed that American voters, most of whom learned to pledge allegiance to the flag in school, grew up with the rule of law, and have never experienced occupation or invasion, would be resistant to this kind of language and imagery. Trump is gambling\u2014knowingly and cynically\u2014that we are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNOW IS THE TIME TO BE INFORMED.SIGN IN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nSubscribe<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a>\u00a0is a staff writer at\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Mediaite\">Mediaite<\/a> Aug 13, 2025 Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic, has covered dictators for decades. In an interview from before the 2024 election with Mediaite\u2019s Press Club, she told host Aidan McLaughlin that Donald Trump\u2019s language mirrored rhetoric from Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. She described a disturbing trend in his authoritarian language \u2014 and how it foreshadowed his consolidation of \u201cabsolute power\u201d in a second term as president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TRUMP IS SPEAKING LIKE HITLER, STALIN, AND MUSSOLINI AUGUST 15, 2025 MIKE ZONTA LEAVE A COMMENT EDIT The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics.By Anne Applebaum OCTOBER 18, 2024 (TheAtlantic.com) To support The Atlantic\u2019s journalism, please consider subscribing today. Rhetoric has a history. The words democracy and tyranny were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers became… <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/43250\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→ <\/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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43252,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions\/43252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Read: Trump isn\u2019t bluffing<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the 2024 campaign, that line has been crossed. Trump blurs the distinction between illegal immigrants and legal immigrants\u2014the latter including his wife, his late ex-wife, the in-laws of his running mate, and many others. He has said of immigrants<\/a>, \u201cThey\u2019re poisoning the blood of our country\u201d and \u201cThey\u2019re destroying the blood of our country.\u201d He has claimed<\/a> that many have \u201cbad genes.\u201d He has also been more explicit: \u201cThey\u2019re not humans; they\u2019re animals\u201d; they are \u201ccold-blooded killers.\u201d He refers more broadly<\/a> to his opponents\u2014American citizens, some of whom are elected officials\u2014as \u201cthe enemy from within \u2026 sick people, radical-left lunatics.\u201d Not only do they have no rights; they should be \u201chandled by,\u201d he has said, \u201cif necessary, National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nMAKE YOUR INBOX MORE INTERESTING WITH NEWSLETTERS FROM YOUR FAVORITE ATLANTIC WRITERS.Browse Newsletters<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn using this language, Trump knows exactly what he is doing<\/a>. He understands which era and what kind of politics this language evokes. \u201cI haven\u2019t read Mein Kampf<\/em>,\u201d he declared, unprovoked, during one rally\u2014an admission that he knows what Hitler\u2019s manifesto contains, whether or not he has actually read it. \u201cIf you don\u2019t use certain rhetoric,\u201d he told an interviewer<\/a>, \u201cif you don\u2019t use certain words, and maybe they\u2019re not very nice words, nothing will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nHis talk of mass deportation<\/a> is equally calculating. When he suggests that he would target<\/a> both legal and illegal immigrants, or use the military arbitrarily against U.S. citizens, he does so knowing that past dictatorships have used public displays of violence to build popular support. By calling for mass violence, he hints at his admiration for these dictatorships<\/a> but also demonstrates disdain for the rule of law and prepares his followers to accept the idea that his regime could, like its predecessors, break the law with impunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese are not jokes, and Trump is not laughing. Nor are the people around him. Delegates at the Republican National Convention held up <\/a>prefabricated<\/a> signs<\/a>: mass deportation now. Just this week, when Trump was swaying to music at a surreal rally<\/a>, he did so in front of a huge slogan<\/a>: trump was right about everything. This is language borrowed directly from Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist. Soon after the rally, the scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat posted a photograph<\/a> of a building in Mussolini\u2019s Italy displaying his slogan: mussolini is always right.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Atlantic<\/em> Daily: The atmosphere of a Trump rally<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese phrases have not been put on posters and banners at random in the final weeks of an American election season. With less than three weeks left to go, most candidates would be fighting for the middle ground, for the swing voters. Trump is doing the exact opposite. Why? There can be only one answer: because he and his campaign team believe that by using the tactics of the 1930s, they can win. The deliberate dehumanization of whole groups of people; the references to police, to violence, to the \u201cbloodbath\u201d that Trump has said<\/a> will unfold if he doesn\u2019t win; the cultivation of hatred not only against immigrants but also against political opponents\u2014none of this has been used successfully in modern American politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut neither has this rhetoric been tried<\/em> in modern American politics. Several generations of American politicians have assumed that American voters, most of whom learned to pledge allegiance to the flag in school, grew up with the rule of law, and have never experienced occupation or invasion, would be resistant to this kind of language and imagery. Trump is gambling\u2014knowingly and cynically\u2014that we are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNOW IS THE TIME TO BE INFORMED.SIGN IN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nSubscribe<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a>\u00a0is a staff writer at\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Mediaite\">Mediaite<\/a> Aug 13, 2025 Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic, has covered dictators for decades. In an interview from before the 2024 election with Mediaite\u2019s Press Club, she told host Aidan McLaughlin that Donald Trump\u2019s language mirrored rhetoric from Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. She described a disturbing trend in his authoritarian language \u2014 and how it foreshadowed his consolidation of \u201cabsolute power\u201d in a second term as president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TRUMP IS SPEAKING LIKE HITLER, STALIN, AND MUSSOLINI AUGUST 15, 2025 MIKE ZONTA LEAVE A COMMENT EDIT The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics.By Anne Applebaum OCTOBER 18, 2024 (TheAtlantic.com) To support The Atlantic\u2019s journalism, please consider subscribing today. Rhetoric has a history. The words democracy and tyranny were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers became… <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/43250\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→ <\/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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43252,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions\/43252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
In the 2024 campaign, that line has been crossed. Trump blurs the distinction between illegal immigrants and legal immigrants\u2014the latter including his wife, his late ex-wife, the in-laws of his running mate, and many others. He has said of immigrants<\/a>, \u201cThey\u2019re poisoning the blood of our country\u201d and \u201cThey\u2019re destroying the blood of our country.\u201d He has claimed<\/a> that many have \u201cbad genes.\u201d He has also been more explicit: \u201cThey\u2019re not humans; they\u2019re animals\u201d; they are \u201ccold-blooded killers.\u201d He refers more broadly<\/a> to his opponents\u2014American citizens, some of whom are elected officials\u2014as \u201cthe enemy from within \u2026 sick people, radical-left lunatics.\u201d Not only do they have no rights; they should be \u201chandled by,\u201d he has said, \u201cif necessary, National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nMAKE YOUR INBOX MORE INTERESTING WITH NEWSLETTERS FROM YOUR FAVORITE ATLANTIC WRITERS.Browse Newsletters<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn using this language, Trump knows exactly what he is doing<\/a>. He understands which era and what kind of politics this language evokes. \u201cI haven\u2019t read Mein Kampf<\/em>,\u201d he declared, unprovoked, during one rally\u2014an admission that he knows what Hitler\u2019s manifesto contains, whether or not he has actually read it. \u201cIf you don\u2019t use certain rhetoric,\u201d he told an interviewer<\/a>, \u201cif you don\u2019t use certain words, and maybe they\u2019re not very nice words, nothing will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nHis talk of mass deportation<\/a> is equally calculating. When he suggests that he would target<\/a> both legal and illegal immigrants, or use the military arbitrarily against U.S. citizens, he does so knowing that past dictatorships have used public displays of violence to build popular support. By calling for mass violence, he hints at his admiration for these dictatorships<\/a> but also demonstrates disdain for the rule of law and prepares his followers to accept the idea that his regime could, like its predecessors, break the law with impunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese are not jokes, and Trump is not laughing. Nor are the people around him. Delegates at the Republican National Convention held up <\/a>prefabricated<\/a> signs<\/a>: mass deportation now. Just this week, when Trump was swaying to music at a surreal rally<\/a>, he did so in front of a huge slogan<\/a>: trump was right about everything. This is language borrowed directly from Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist. Soon after the rally, the scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat posted a photograph<\/a> of a building in Mussolini\u2019s Italy displaying his slogan: mussolini is always right.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Atlantic<\/em> Daily: The atmosphere of a Trump rally<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese phrases have not been put on posters and banners at random in the final weeks of an American election season. With less than three weeks left to go, most candidates would be fighting for the middle ground, for the swing voters. Trump is doing the exact opposite. Why? There can be only one answer: because he and his campaign team believe that by using the tactics of the 1930s, they can win. The deliberate dehumanization of whole groups of people; the references to police, to violence, to the \u201cbloodbath\u201d that Trump has said<\/a> will unfold if he doesn\u2019t win; the cultivation of hatred not only against immigrants but also against political opponents\u2014none of this has been used successfully in modern American politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut neither has this rhetoric been tried<\/em> in modern American politics. Several generations of American politicians have assumed that American voters, most of whom learned to pledge allegiance to the flag in school, grew up with the rule of law, and have never experienced occupation or invasion, would be resistant to this kind of language and imagery. Trump is gambling\u2014knowingly and cynically\u2014that we are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNOW IS THE TIME TO BE INFORMED.SIGN IN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nSubscribe<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a>\u00a0is a staff writer at\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Mediaite\">Mediaite<\/a> Aug 13, 2025 Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic, has covered dictators for decades. In an interview from before the 2024 election with Mediaite\u2019s Press Club, she told host Aidan McLaughlin that Donald Trump\u2019s language mirrored rhetoric from Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. She described a disturbing trend in his authoritarian language \u2014 and how it foreshadowed his consolidation of \u201cabsolute power\u201d in a second term as president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TRUMP IS SPEAKING LIKE HITLER, STALIN, AND MUSSOLINI AUGUST 15, 2025 MIKE ZONTA LEAVE A COMMENT EDIT The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics.By Anne Applebaum OCTOBER 18, 2024 (TheAtlantic.com) To support The Atlantic\u2019s journalism, please consider subscribing today. Rhetoric has a history. The words democracy and tyranny were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers became… <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/43250\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→ <\/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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43252,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions\/43252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
MAKE YOUR INBOX MORE INTERESTING WITH NEWSLETTERS FROM YOUR FAVORITE ATLANTIC WRITERS.Browse Newsletters<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn using this language, Trump knows exactly what he is doing<\/a>. He understands which era and what kind of politics this language evokes. \u201cI haven\u2019t read Mein Kampf<\/em>,\u201d he declared, unprovoked, during one rally\u2014an admission that he knows what Hitler\u2019s manifesto contains, whether or not he has actually read it. \u201cIf you don\u2019t use certain rhetoric,\u201d he told an interviewer<\/a>, \u201cif you don\u2019t use certain words, and maybe they\u2019re not very nice words, nothing will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nHis talk of mass deportation<\/a> is equally calculating. When he suggests that he would target<\/a> both legal and illegal immigrants, or use the military arbitrarily against U.S. citizens, he does so knowing that past dictatorships have used public displays of violence to build popular support. By calling for mass violence, he hints at his admiration for these dictatorships<\/a> but also demonstrates disdain for the rule of law and prepares his followers to accept the idea that his regime could, like its predecessors, break the law with impunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese are not jokes, and Trump is not laughing. Nor are the people around him. Delegates at the Republican National Convention held up <\/a>prefabricated<\/a> signs<\/a>: mass deportation now. Just this week, when Trump was swaying to music at a surreal rally<\/a>, he did so in front of a huge slogan<\/a>: trump was right about everything. This is language borrowed directly from Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist. Soon after the rally, the scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat posted a photograph<\/a> of a building in Mussolini\u2019s Italy displaying his slogan: mussolini is always right.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Atlantic<\/em> Daily: The atmosphere of a Trump rally<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese phrases have not been put on posters and banners at random in the final weeks of an American election season. With less than three weeks left to go, most candidates would be fighting for the middle ground, for the swing voters. Trump is doing the exact opposite. Why? There can be only one answer: because he and his campaign team believe that by using the tactics of the 1930s, they can win. The deliberate dehumanization of whole groups of people; the references to police, to violence, to the \u201cbloodbath\u201d that Trump has said<\/a> will unfold if he doesn\u2019t win; the cultivation of hatred not only against immigrants but also against political opponents\u2014none of this has been used successfully in modern American politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut neither has this rhetoric been tried<\/em> in modern American politics. Several generations of American politicians have assumed that American voters, most of whom learned to pledge allegiance to the flag in school, grew up with the rule of law, and have never experienced occupation or invasion, would be resistant to this kind of language and imagery. Trump is gambling\u2014knowingly and cynically\u2014that we are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNOW IS THE TIME TO BE INFORMED.SIGN IN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nSubscribe<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a>\u00a0is a staff writer at\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Mediaite\">Mediaite<\/a> Aug 13, 2025 Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic, has covered dictators for decades. In an interview from before the 2024 election with Mediaite\u2019s Press Club, she told host Aidan McLaughlin that Donald Trump\u2019s language mirrored rhetoric from Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. She described a disturbing trend in his authoritarian language \u2014 and how it foreshadowed his consolidation of \u201cabsolute power\u201d in a second term as president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TRUMP IS SPEAKING LIKE HITLER, STALIN, AND MUSSOLINI AUGUST 15, 2025 MIKE ZONTA LEAVE A COMMENT EDIT The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics.By Anne Applebaum OCTOBER 18, 2024 (TheAtlantic.com) To support The Atlantic\u2019s journalism, please consider subscribing today. Rhetoric has a history. The words democracy and tyranny were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers became… <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/43250\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→ <\/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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43252,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions\/43252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
In using this language, Trump knows exactly what he is doing<\/a>. He understands which era and what kind of politics this language evokes. \u201cI haven\u2019t read Mein Kampf<\/em>,\u201d he declared, unprovoked, during one rally\u2014an admission that he knows what Hitler\u2019s manifesto contains, whether or not he has actually read it. \u201cIf you don\u2019t use certain rhetoric,\u201d he told an interviewer<\/a>, \u201cif you don\u2019t use certain words, and maybe they\u2019re not very nice words, nothing will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nHis talk of mass deportation<\/a> is equally calculating. When he suggests that he would target<\/a> both legal and illegal immigrants, or use the military arbitrarily against U.S. citizens, he does so knowing that past dictatorships have used public displays of violence to build popular support. By calling for mass violence, he hints at his admiration for these dictatorships<\/a> but also demonstrates disdain for the rule of law and prepares his followers to accept the idea that his regime could, like its predecessors, break the law with impunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese are not jokes, and Trump is not laughing. Nor are the people around him. Delegates at the Republican National Convention held up <\/a>prefabricated<\/a> signs<\/a>: mass deportation now. Just this week, when Trump was swaying to music at a surreal rally<\/a>, he did so in front of a huge slogan<\/a>: trump was right about everything. This is language borrowed directly from Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist. Soon after the rally, the scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat posted a photograph<\/a> of a building in Mussolini\u2019s Italy displaying his slogan: mussolini is always right.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Atlantic<\/em> Daily: The atmosphere of a Trump rally<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese phrases have not been put on posters and banners at random in the final weeks of an American election season. With less than three weeks left to go, most candidates would be fighting for the middle ground, for the swing voters. Trump is doing the exact opposite. Why? There can be only one answer: because he and his campaign team believe that by using the tactics of the 1930s, they can win. The deliberate dehumanization of whole groups of people; the references to police, to violence, to the \u201cbloodbath\u201d that Trump has said<\/a> will unfold if he doesn\u2019t win; the cultivation of hatred not only against immigrants but also against political opponents\u2014none of this has been used successfully in modern American politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut neither has this rhetoric been tried<\/em> in modern American politics. Several generations of American politicians have assumed that American voters, most of whom learned to pledge allegiance to the flag in school, grew up with the rule of law, and have never experienced occupation or invasion, would be resistant to this kind of language and imagery. Trump is gambling\u2014knowingly and cynically\u2014that we are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNOW IS THE TIME TO BE INFORMED.SIGN IN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nSubscribe<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a>\u00a0is a staff writer at\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Mediaite\">Mediaite<\/a> Aug 13, 2025 Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic, has covered dictators for decades. In an interview from before the 2024 election with Mediaite\u2019s Press Club, she told host Aidan McLaughlin that Donald Trump\u2019s language mirrored rhetoric from Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. She described a disturbing trend in his authoritarian language \u2014 and how it foreshadowed his consolidation of \u201cabsolute power\u201d in a second term as president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TRUMP IS SPEAKING LIKE HITLER, STALIN, AND MUSSOLINI AUGUST 15, 2025 MIKE ZONTA LEAVE A COMMENT EDIT The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics.By Anne Applebaum OCTOBER 18, 2024 (TheAtlantic.com) To support The Atlantic\u2019s journalism, please consider subscribing today. Rhetoric has a history. The words democracy and tyranny were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers became… <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/43250\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→ <\/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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43252,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions\/43252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
His talk of mass deportation<\/a> is equally calculating. When he suggests that he would target<\/a> both legal and illegal immigrants, or use the military arbitrarily against U.S. citizens, he does so knowing that past dictatorships have used public displays of violence to build popular support. By calling for mass violence, he hints at his admiration for these dictatorships<\/a> but also demonstrates disdain for the rule of law and prepares his followers to accept the idea that his regime could, like its predecessors, break the law with impunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese are not jokes, and Trump is not laughing. Nor are the people around him. Delegates at the Republican National Convention held up <\/a>prefabricated<\/a> signs<\/a>: mass deportation now. Just this week, when Trump was swaying to music at a surreal rally<\/a>, he did so in front of a huge slogan<\/a>: trump was right about everything. This is language borrowed directly from Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist. Soon after the rally, the scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat posted a photograph<\/a> of a building in Mussolini\u2019s Italy displaying his slogan: mussolini is always right.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Atlantic<\/em> Daily: The atmosphere of a Trump rally<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese phrases have not been put on posters and banners at random in the final weeks of an American election season. With less than three weeks left to go, most candidates would be fighting for the middle ground, for the swing voters. Trump is doing the exact opposite. Why? There can be only one answer: because he and his campaign team believe that by using the tactics of the 1930s, they can win. The deliberate dehumanization of whole groups of people; the references to police, to violence, to the \u201cbloodbath\u201d that Trump has said<\/a> will unfold if he doesn\u2019t win; the cultivation of hatred not only against immigrants but also against political opponents\u2014none of this has been used successfully in modern American politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut neither has this rhetoric been tried<\/em> in modern American politics. Several generations of American politicians have assumed that American voters, most of whom learned to pledge allegiance to the flag in school, grew up with the rule of law, and have never experienced occupation or invasion, would be resistant to this kind of language and imagery. Trump is gambling\u2014knowingly and cynically\u2014that we are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNOW IS THE TIME TO BE INFORMED.SIGN IN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nSubscribe<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a>\u00a0is a staff writer at\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Mediaite\">Mediaite<\/a> Aug 13, 2025 Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic, has covered dictators for decades. In an interview from before the 2024 election with Mediaite\u2019s Press Club, she told host Aidan McLaughlin that Donald Trump\u2019s language mirrored rhetoric from Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. She described a disturbing trend in his authoritarian language \u2014 and how it foreshadowed his consolidation of \u201cabsolute power\u201d in a second term as president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TRUMP IS SPEAKING LIKE HITLER, STALIN, AND MUSSOLINI AUGUST 15, 2025 MIKE ZONTA LEAVE A COMMENT EDIT The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics.By Anne Applebaum OCTOBER 18, 2024 (TheAtlantic.com) To support The Atlantic\u2019s journalism, please consider subscribing today. Rhetoric has a history. The words democracy and tyranny were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers became… <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/43250\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→ <\/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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43252,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions\/43252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
These are not jokes, and Trump is not laughing. Nor are the people around him. Delegates at the Republican National Convention held up <\/a>prefabricated<\/a> signs<\/a>: mass deportation now. Just this week, when Trump was swaying to music at a surreal rally<\/a>, he did so in front of a huge slogan<\/a>: trump was right about everything. This is language borrowed directly from Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist. Soon after the rally, the scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat posted a photograph<\/a> of a building in Mussolini\u2019s Italy displaying his slogan: mussolini is always right.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Atlantic<\/em> Daily: The atmosphere of a Trump rally<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese phrases have not been put on posters and banners at random in the final weeks of an American election season. With less than three weeks left to go, most candidates would be fighting for the middle ground, for the swing voters. Trump is doing the exact opposite. Why? There can be only one answer: because he and his campaign team believe that by using the tactics of the 1930s, they can win. The deliberate dehumanization of whole groups of people; the references to police, to violence, to the \u201cbloodbath\u201d that Trump has said<\/a> will unfold if he doesn\u2019t win; the cultivation of hatred not only against immigrants but also against political opponents\u2014none of this has been used successfully in modern American politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut neither has this rhetoric been tried<\/em> in modern American politics. Several generations of American politicians have assumed that American voters, most of whom learned to pledge allegiance to the flag in school, grew up with the rule of law, and have never experienced occupation or invasion, would be resistant to this kind of language and imagery. Trump is gambling\u2014knowingly and cynically\u2014that we are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNOW IS THE TIME TO BE INFORMED.SIGN IN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nSubscribe<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a>\u00a0is a staff writer at\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Mediaite\">Mediaite<\/a> Aug 13, 2025 Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic, has covered dictators for decades. In an interview from before the 2024 election with Mediaite\u2019s Press Club, she told host Aidan McLaughlin that Donald Trump\u2019s language mirrored rhetoric from Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. She described a disturbing trend in his authoritarian language \u2014 and how it foreshadowed his consolidation of \u201cabsolute power\u201d in a second term as president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TRUMP IS SPEAKING LIKE HITLER, STALIN, AND MUSSOLINI AUGUST 15, 2025 MIKE ZONTA LEAVE A COMMENT EDIT The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics.By Anne Applebaum OCTOBER 18, 2024 (TheAtlantic.com) To support The Atlantic\u2019s journalism, please consider subscribing today. Rhetoric has a history. The words democracy and tyranny were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers became… <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/43250\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→ <\/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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43252,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions\/43252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The Atlantic<\/em> Daily: The atmosphere of a Trump rally<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese phrases have not been put on posters and banners at random in the final weeks of an American election season. With less than three weeks left to go, most candidates would be fighting for the middle ground, for the swing voters. Trump is doing the exact opposite. Why? There can be only one answer: because he and his campaign team believe that by using the tactics of the 1930s, they can win. The deliberate dehumanization of whole groups of people; the references to police, to violence, to the \u201cbloodbath\u201d that Trump has said<\/a> will unfold if he doesn\u2019t win; the cultivation of hatred not only against immigrants but also against political opponents\u2014none of this has been used successfully in modern American politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut neither has this rhetoric been tried<\/em> in modern American politics. Several generations of American politicians have assumed that American voters, most of whom learned to pledge allegiance to the flag in school, grew up with the rule of law, and have never experienced occupation or invasion, would be resistant to this kind of language and imagery. Trump is gambling\u2014knowingly and cynically\u2014that we are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNOW IS THE TIME TO BE INFORMED.SIGN IN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nSubscribe<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a>\u00a0is a staff writer at\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Mediaite\">Mediaite<\/a> Aug 13, 2025 Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic, has covered dictators for decades. In an interview from before the 2024 election with Mediaite\u2019s Press Club, she told host Aidan McLaughlin that Donald Trump\u2019s language mirrored rhetoric from Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. She described a disturbing trend in his authoritarian language \u2014 and how it foreshadowed his consolidation of \u201cabsolute power\u201d in a second term as president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TRUMP IS SPEAKING LIKE HITLER, STALIN, AND MUSSOLINI AUGUST 15, 2025 MIKE ZONTA LEAVE A COMMENT EDIT The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics.By Anne Applebaum OCTOBER 18, 2024 (TheAtlantic.com) To support The Atlantic\u2019s journalism, please consider subscribing today. Rhetoric has a history. The words democracy and tyranny were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers became… <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/43250\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→ <\/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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43252,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions\/43252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
These phrases have not been put on posters and banners at random in the final weeks of an American election season. With less than three weeks left to go, most candidates would be fighting for the middle ground, for the swing voters. Trump is doing the exact opposite. Why? There can be only one answer: because he and his campaign team believe that by using the tactics of the 1930s, they can win. The deliberate dehumanization of whole groups of people; the references to police, to violence, to the \u201cbloodbath\u201d that Trump has said<\/a> will unfold if he doesn\u2019t win; the cultivation of hatred not only against immigrants but also against political opponents\u2014none of this has been used successfully in modern American politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut neither has this rhetoric been tried<\/em> in modern American politics. Several generations of American politicians have assumed that American voters, most of whom learned to pledge allegiance to the flag in school, grew up with the rule of law, and have never experienced occupation or invasion, would be resistant to this kind of language and imagery. Trump is gambling\u2014knowingly and cynically\u2014that we are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNOW IS THE TIME TO BE INFORMED.SIGN IN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nSubscribe<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a>\u00a0is a staff writer at\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Mediaite\">Mediaite<\/a> Aug 13, 2025 Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic, has covered dictators for decades. In an interview from before the 2024 election with Mediaite\u2019s Press Club, she told host Aidan McLaughlin that Donald Trump\u2019s language mirrored rhetoric from Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. She described a disturbing trend in his authoritarian language \u2014 and how it foreshadowed his consolidation of \u201cabsolute power\u201d in a second term as president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TRUMP IS SPEAKING LIKE HITLER, STALIN, AND MUSSOLINI AUGUST 15, 2025 MIKE ZONTA LEAVE A COMMENT EDIT The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics.By Anne Applebaum OCTOBER 18, 2024 (TheAtlantic.com) To support The Atlantic\u2019s journalism, please consider subscribing today. Rhetoric has a history. The words democracy and tyranny were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers became… <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/43250\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→ <\/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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43252,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions\/43252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
But neither has this rhetoric been tried<\/em> in modern American politics. Several generations of American politicians have assumed that American voters, most of whom learned to pledge allegiance to the flag in school, grew up with the rule of law, and have never experienced occupation or invasion, would be resistant to this kind of language and imagery. Trump is gambling\u2014knowingly and cynically\u2014that we are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNOW IS THE TIME TO BE INFORMED.SIGN IN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nSubscribe<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a>\u00a0is a staff writer at\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Mediaite\">Mediaite<\/a> Aug 13, 2025 Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic, has covered dictators for decades. In an interview from before the 2024 election with Mediaite\u2019s Press Club, she told host Aidan McLaughlin that Donald Trump\u2019s language mirrored rhetoric from Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. She described a disturbing trend in his authoritarian language \u2014 and how it foreshadowed his consolidation of \u201cabsolute power\u201d in a second term as president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TRUMP IS SPEAKING LIKE HITLER, STALIN, AND MUSSOLINI AUGUST 15, 2025 MIKE ZONTA LEAVE A COMMENT EDIT The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics.By Anne Applebaum OCTOBER 18, 2024 (TheAtlantic.com) To support The Atlantic\u2019s journalism, please consider subscribing today. Rhetoric has a history. The words democracy and tyranny were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers became… <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/43250\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→ <\/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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43252,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions\/43252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
NOW IS THE TIME TO BE INFORMED.SIGN IN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nSubscribe<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a>\u00a0is a staff writer at\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Mediaite\">Mediaite<\/a> Aug 13, 2025 Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic, has covered dictators for decades. In an interview from before the 2024 election with Mediaite\u2019s Press Club, she told host Aidan McLaughlin that Donald Trump\u2019s language mirrored rhetoric from Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. She described a disturbing trend in his authoritarian language \u2014 and how it foreshadowed his consolidation of \u201cabsolute power\u201d in a second term as president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TRUMP IS SPEAKING LIKE HITLER, STALIN, AND MUSSOLINI AUGUST 15, 2025 MIKE ZONTA LEAVE A COMMENT EDIT The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics.By Anne Applebaum OCTOBER 18, 2024 (TheAtlantic.com) To support The Atlantic\u2019s journalism, please consider subscribing today. Rhetoric has a history. The words democracy and tyranny were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers became… <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/43250\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→ <\/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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43252,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions\/43252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a>\u00a0is a staff writer at\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Mediaite\">Mediaite<\/a> Aug 13, 2025 Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic, has covered dictators for decades. In an interview from before the 2024 election with Mediaite\u2019s Press Club, she told host Aidan McLaughlin that Donald Trump\u2019s language mirrored rhetoric from Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. She described a disturbing trend in his authoritarian language \u2014 and how it foreshadowed his consolidation of \u201cabsolute power\u201d in a second term as president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TRUMP IS SPEAKING LIKE HITLER, STALIN, AND MUSSOLINI AUGUST 15, 2025 MIKE ZONTA LEAVE A COMMENT EDIT The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics.By Anne Applebaum OCTOBER 18, 2024 (TheAtlantic.com) To support The Atlantic\u2019s journalism, please consider subscribing today. Rhetoric has a history. The words democracy and tyranny were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers became… <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/43250\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→ <\/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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43252,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions\/43252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Anne Applebaum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnne Applebaum<\/a>\u00a0is a staff writer at\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Mediaite\">Mediaite<\/a> Aug 13, 2025 Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic, has covered dictators for decades. In an interview from before the 2024 election with Mediaite\u2019s Press Club, she told host Aidan McLaughlin that Donald Trump\u2019s language mirrored rhetoric from Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. She described a disturbing trend in his authoritarian language \u2014 and how it foreshadowed his consolidation of \u201cabsolute power\u201d in a second term as president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TRUMP IS SPEAKING LIKE HITLER, STALIN, AND MUSSOLINI AUGUST 15, 2025 MIKE ZONTA LEAVE A COMMENT EDIT The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics.By Anne Applebaum OCTOBER 18, 2024 (TheAtlantic.com) To support The Atlantic\u2019s journalism, please consider subscribing today. Rhetoric has a history. The words democracy and tyranny were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers became… <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/43250\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→ <\/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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43252,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions\/43252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Anne Applebaum<\/a>\u00a0is a staff writer at\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Mediaite\">Mediaite<\/a> Aug 13, 2025 Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic, has covered dictators for decades. In an interview from before the 2024 election with Mediaite\u2019s Press Club, she told host Aidan McLaughlin that Donald Trump\u2019s language mirrored rhetoric from Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. She described a disturbing trend in his authoritarian language \u2014 and how it foreshadowed his consolidation of \u201cabsolute power\u201d in a second term as president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TRUMP IS SPEAKING LIKE HITLER, STALIN, AND MUSSOLINI AUGUST 15, 2025 MIKE ZONTA LEAVE A COMMENT EDIT The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics.By Anne Applebaum OCTOBER 18, 2024 (TheAtlantic.com) To support The Atlantic\u2019s journalism, please consider subscribing today. Rhetoric has a history. The words democracy and tyranny were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers became… <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/43250\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→ <\/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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43252,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions\/43252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}