Jim Walsh

In 2020, during a pre-election debate, Donald Trump was asked if he condemned white supremacists like the Proud Boys. He replied, “Proud Boys — stand back and stand by. But I’ll tell you what… Somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the left.”

Then, on Jan. 6, at the urging of Mr. Trump, the Proud Boys and their allies stepped forward, seeking to stop the constitutional process established to declare the election of a president of the United States.

At this time in our history, how are we to understand this man? Are Donald Trump and his people planning the overthrow of the American political system?

When dissatisfaction and uncertainty are rampant in the world, a dissatisfied electorate can make disastrous decisions. That was never more apparent than in 1933 when two men came to power on the back of widespread economic dissatisfaction… Franklin D. Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler.

Is it an outlandish exaggeration to suggest that Donald Trump resembles Adolf Hitler far more than he does FDR? I wish it were so… but it is not.

Consider for a moment Trump’s demand for absolute political and personal loyalty. He prefers a cabinet consisting of temporary appointees, not subject to Senate confirmation. He and his people are calling for elimination of most of the civil service, replacing it with “his people” serving at his personal pleasure without any job protection. He recently assured conservative Christians that if they vote for him in 2024, they’ll never have to vote again! Hitler made a similar promise to his followers in 1933 and then followed through. Only after Berlin had been reduced to rubble were free elections held in Germany again. He has called for the creation of concentration camps to deal with troublesome minorities and other practices that are fascistic in nature.

How are we to understand Donald Trump? Is it reasonable and fair to compare him to Adolf Hitler? Unfortunately, it is.

In 1943, the Office of Strategic Services (precursor to the CIA) gathered the best psychologists they could find and asked them to secretly analyze the psychology of Hitler from afar. Who was he? What made him tick? Understanding his personality would enable the United States and its Allies to understand what paths he might follow.

The result was the “Analysis of The Personality of Adolph Hitler/With Predictions of His Future Behavior,” authored by Dr. David Murray and his team. Cornell University Press has made that report available online.

In this report, Dr. Murray and his team described Hitler as a “counteractive narcissist” stimulated by real or imagined insult or injury. The characteristics of this personality type include holding grudges; low tolerance for criticism; excessive demands for attention; inability to express gratitude; a tendency to belittle, bully, and blame others; a desire for revenge; persistence in the face of defeat; extreme self-will and self-trust; compulsive criminality; and the inability to take a joke.

Does that description not also fit Donald J. Trump? 

When he stood before the Republican National Convention in 2020, did Trump declare, “through my leadership and the policies of the Republican Party, we will improve the lives of Americans?”

No. He did not. He said, “Only I can fix it!”

Under similar conditions, had he been on that platform in 2020, that is precisely what Adolf Hitler would have said.

Just recently, speaking to a conservative Christian group in West Palm Beach, Trump assured them that, if they helped put him in power in 2024, they would never have to vote again! In Germany, after he became chancellor, no real elections were held again during Hitler’s lifetime.

Was it just loose talk when Trump called for the execution of those he sees as enemies, such as Gen. Mark Milley, retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff? Gen. Milley had pointed out that his oath was not to a particular person. His oath was “to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Trump found his attitude not just offensive. He found it treasonous.

Trump has asserted his intention to free from prison all those convicted of attacking and occupying the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. One group of convicted January 6th rioters created the “J6 Prison Choir,” also known as the “Choir of the Convicted.” Trump has played recordings of them singing at his rallies.

If Trump wins in 2024, will these convicts sing on Jan. 20, 2025? Or outside the concentration camps he will create for unwanted immigrants? Or at the execution of those who were disloyal to him?

Finally, one might ask, “If Trump is so like Hitler, who then are the Jews?”

The answer to that is obvious. Immigrants. Except those immigrants from northern Europe whose genes and bloodlines he so admires (ignoring, for the moment, the Democratic candidate for vice president).

When Trump ran for office and came to power in 2016, he called on Americans to hate Muslims. Any Muslims. More recently, as he again seeks office, he calls upon Americans to hate immigrants from Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and India.

To end where we began, the day after Trump publicly called for the Proud Boys to stand back and stand by, he denied he even knew who the Proud Boys were. After he, his supporters, and members of his administration created Project 2025, which details the dismemberment of the United States as we know it, he claimed to know nothing about it.

The renowned author Hannah Arendt, who grew up as a Jew in Germany as Hitler was coming to power, has written, “The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that… one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.”

As we citizens seek to understand the world we live in, the world we grew up in, and the world evolving into a future that will define reality for our children and grandchildren, authoritarians will seek to work their black magic. They will lie, mislead, and manipulate.

As citizens of a democratic republic, we need to investigate facts, discern the most likely truths, and act… to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Jim Walsh is the chair of the Nahant Democratic Town Committee.