Trump’s Emulation of Hitler on Economic Policy
(Trump’s espousal of pro-worker policies in 2016, and his support of economic royalists in 2017, mimic Hitler’s change of heart, on economic issues, when he ascended to power)
Trump’s Emulation of Hitler on Economic Policy
(Trump’s espousal of pro-worker policies in 2016, and his support of economic royalists in 2017, mimic Hitler’s change of heart, on economic issues, when he ascended to power)
By
David Gottfried
In a previous essay on substack, “Donald Trump on the Eve of Oblivion” (https://davidgottfried.substack.com/p/donald-trump-on-the-eve-of-oblivion), I noted that Trump, like Hitler, betrayed and spurned his closest supporters as the end drew near.
There are more parallels to Hitler. Hitler was, of course, a fascist through and through. He was a racist, an Anti-Semite, a ferocious believer of German and “Aryan” superiority and a creature with a demonic love of war and slaughter.
However, on economic issues he was a bit more ambiguous. He consistently expressed rage, real or affected, at the plight of the German poor and the unemployed. In the course of his incendiary and scathing rants against Jews, he could easily segue into a blistering critique of economic elites. Actually, in the early days of the Nazi Movement, there was an organization known as the SA. These guys were sometimes called the “Beefsteak Nazis” because, it was said, if you pricked beneath the surface you would see that they were red as a Bolshevik in their animus toward the rich. They were racist, Anti-Semitic and militaristic, but they lurched to the “left” on economics.
When Hitler assumed dictatorial power, he had to decide whom he would support, and he ruled decisively in favor of the industrialists. The SA, or the supposedly “left-wing” Nazis who raged against excessive wealth, were annihilated. In what was known as the night of Long Knives, June 30, 1934, 3000 leading members of the SA were killed. (I might be wrong about the composition of the victims of the Night of Long Knives. I have heard varying accounts. I welcome comments from informed readers.)
Similarly, in the United States, Trump, upon claiming the throne, swiftly demonstrated that he would bow to the rich as unreservedly as Hitler bowed to the Prussian aristocrats and industrialists. While he gave the rich the most obscene tax cuts in our history, he furtively stopped almost 2 million Americans from getting overtime by classifying many blue collar workers as managerial, rescinded the fiduciary duties that had been imposed on investment advisors to the elderly, forgot about his pledge to increase social security and Medicare payments and seemed perfectly content to hurtle back in time to the days of Charles Dickens, poorhouses, and young boys commandeered to be chimney sweeps and suffer scrotal cancer (In the 1770’s, a British physician noted that scrotal cancer was a prime occupational hazard of being a little boy and a chimney sweep. Of course, in silly America, people watched “Mary Poppins,” enjoyed Dick Van Dyke swimming in soot and got the idea that old English poverty was charming and jolly good fun.)