I was at a cocktail party one night during the 2018 midterm primaries when the guests were discussing how great the president has been at the rallies he had been stealing away from his duties at the White House to attend. Not only was he the greatest, quoting from his Twitter postings about the appearance in Ohio, but Facebook liked him a lot. An argument broke out. Who does he sound more like at the campaign rallies?
Is he the new Mussolini? Or is it Hitler?
He also looks like Mayor Giuliani, speaking from the balcony at City Hall, I argued the tertium quid, recalling Il Rudi waving his hands around like a traffic cop in the Via del Corso in downtown Rome.
FULL DISCLOSURE: You should know that I am a leading authority. My next book is the definitive guide, The Collected Great Nonverbal Speeches of Donald Trump, a.k.a. The Handbook.
In general, Trump in his rally mode most reminds me of Italy’s Greatest Fascist. His facial gestures and body language are almost the same as Il Duce’s, but his claims to greatness are far more outrageous, a performance worthy of Italian comedic opera.
In fairness, I also can see the resemblance with Hitler as a campaigner.
The similarity struck me as early as the convention in Cleveland and his acceptance speech, which looked like it was choreographed by Leni Riefenstahl.
His ability to tell lies would leave Dr. Joseph Goebbels openmouthed. He could win the gold in any Olympic speed-lying contest.
Der Donald’s vision of America the Not So Beautiful that he delivered in his first Inaugural Address evoked the Weimar Republic in the dark days of the late 1920s. His promise to make America great seemed to be remarkably similar to the Little Corporal’s speeches in the 1932 Reichstag election, promising to make Germany great again. Although Trump is said to keep a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside, I’m sure it’s just one of those coincidences that turn up in comparing the two believers in democratic process.
Watching Trump as he launched his 2020 election campaign the day after the 2017 inauguration at a rally in Indiana a week later, a sensitive nose could smell the beer hall atmosphere of early National Socialist Munich rallies. I needed to force my right arm down so as not to give the stiff Sieg Heil, Der Donald salute.
Violence is also in the air at Trump rallies. He seems to encourage the beating up of protesters. His lawyers are on hand, he assures, and don’t worry about the court fines. Judging by the way he stiffs his workers and lawyers, I wouldn’t stop worrying.
What impressed me most about Der Donald’s army is the dedication of the 34.9 percent hard-core followers for whom their leader can do no wrong.
His troops are not bothered by his apparent ignorance of foreign affairs. Not since Gerry Ford in the 1976 Republican debates said the Soviet Union did not control Poland had there been a future president who seemed such a dummkopf. What Trump knew about foreign affairs, a major part of being president, he may have learned from his “Miss Universe” contest business. The bold initiatives proposed during the campaign speeches, like abandoning NATO and turning our back on the rest of the free world, made no sense other than sounding like Russia’s foreign policy.
It didn’t seem to matter, either, that his domestic programs were based on the principle of not paying taxes. That’s because he’s smart. What a lesson for future generations of dumb taxpayers.
The most awesome number to come out of the exit polling on the first election is that so many of Der Donald’s faithful already believed months in advance that the election of 2016 was rigged. Even if he lost that November, according to one poll, only 21 percent said they would accept the election results.
Mussolini or Hitler?
It may be too close to call. Either way, the fact that Der Donald has been campaigning for tyrant in chief in 2020 ever since Election Day 2016, keeps some people awake at night.
“I keep thinking I’m seeing,” one of the nervous Nellies at the cocktail party told me, “a scene from the dark comedy classic The Great Dictator with Charlie Chaplin playing Donald Trump. I just wish they would wake me up and say it’s over.”
It already may be, I assured him.