If you can’t figure out why Trump is still less popular than Hitler, or why that actually matters, know first that this is not just another “Trump is Hitler” article. As early as 2016, it was common to compare Trump to Hitler in the media. That’s odd because prior to that he had never held public office. There was no precedent for what he might do as President.
He would have been in office less than a year at that point, so at the time, the comparisons would have been mostly hysterical. Comedic takes, maybe, if you’d like to call them that. In reality, he was more of an insult comic like his performances at the Presidential primary debate(s) or social media stunts.
Trump famously brought some of Bill Clinton’s accusers to a debate against then-candidate Hillary Clinton. An audio clip surfaced of him bragging about grabbing women by the pussy, claiming his wealth and status gave him that power, which drove people crazy. I don’t remember Hitler ever bragging about grabbing women by the pussy, nor tabloids covering such a scandal as if it were the downfall of a civilization. So, to any reasonable person, the differences between Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump are obvious.
Most people who defend Trump against comparisons to Hitler support him. I don’t. I never supported Trump, and I never voted for him. In 2020, I pitched an outdoor advertising campaign to Trump Victory PA. I sent them email evidence showing that Philadelphia’s Democrat-run government blocked me from buying ads for Trump while handing Biden’s campaign free space on city property. Trump’s team ghosted me. Their cowardice bothered me, no matter the politics. At the time, I still saw Trump as less of a lunatic than the local Democrats, and nowhere near resembling Hitler.
When Trump Victory PA ghosted me and the Republican Party ignored the evidence I gave them about Democratic corruption, I realized both parties wanted to protect their own interests, not tell the truth. Over the years, I grew more resentful toward Trump’s team for dismissing what I uncovered, and I stayed angry at Democrats who refused to recognize me as a potential ally in exposing their fraud.
Do I Think Trump Is Hitler?
Quite the opposite, actually. I will attempt to prove to both sides why comparing Trump to Hitler is not an accurate comparison. Moreover, to the liberals and Democrats, I will demonstrate to you that Trump benefits from this comparison in ways you contribute to. You must stop this (if you’re a liberal reading this) because Trump cannot be compared to Hitler, because Hitler was a lot more popular than Trump will ever be.
The authoritarian landscape of the 1940’s is far different than the 2020’s as well. So comparing these two characters is a little bit like comparing poison apples to an orange man. It doesn’t help the cause of defeating the Trump agenda.
Speak Softly and Talk About How Big Your Stick Is
On the 2024 campaign trail, Donald Trump fake performing fellatio and talked about Arnold Palmer’s penis size. These are not the kinds of things you could even easily imagine Adolf Hitler would joke about at any time for any reason. So clearly, there are differences between these two figures in terms of how they conduct themselves. It is not uncommon for people to call Trump a clown. He is, in many ways, quite clownish.
That is part of what enables him to act dictator-like, or destroy the constitution.
The issues of comedy, satire, and self deprecation are unusual for an authoritarian.
Most people don’t think they could laugh themselves out of democracy. But could we?
Some Families In the American Dynasty Have A Sense of Humor About Them
Russian dictators famously refused to tolerate ridicule. Many people tell jokes about Russian socialism, especially about how the Soviet Union banned humor. At this point, it’s necessary that people understand the function that Donald Trump’s “self-smear” and becoming the butt of a joke plays in Trump’s methodology.
A lot of commentators and authors who have written books about Trump describe him as a soft, thin-skinned narcissist who can’t stand opposition. That is just not how things have gone. From 2016 until today, Trump has received incredible amounts of bad news. Almost comically so. From covfefe to January 6th, it’s hard to know what is the most scandalous event he’s been part of since entering the political domain. People did not see Hitler as a clown. He was only and always threatening. Menacing. Pure evil.
Trump agreed to be roasted on Comedy Central years ago and continues to let people mock him. He controls narratives by allowing this kind of spectacle, and oddly enough, he seems to enjoy it. Many people believed — and some still believe — that a tape exists of Russian prostitutes peeing on Trump. Yet they can’t seem to grasp that Trump would also take pleasure in public ridicule. Even when he defends himself afterward, he clearly orchestrates these situations on purpose, possibly even staging fake news against himself. Most people can’t conceive of doing something like that, because they — or you, the reader — would never behave that way. But that difference highlights exactly what separates you from people like Trump.
How Quietly the West Was Won
Very few authoritarian leaders in the world today embrace an out & out call to cleanse other ethnicities or fully destroy other nations. Most dictators at least portray themselves in some aspects as sympathetic, even benevolent people. El Salvador’s current President Nayib Bukele has called himself both “philosopher King” and “the world’s coolest dictator.” These men do not bang on a podium as they shout into a microphone to crowds of thousands of people. They are more soft spoken like Trump is, and this is in part why the rhetoric doesn’t match the results. That causes confusion.
It should make you feel uncomfortable to realize that Trump is less popular today than Hitler was while openly talking about eradicating all racial impurity. This should hurt actually, when you really think about it. But the fact remains, that in Germany in the 30’s & 40’s there was an overwhelming (near total) acceptance of what Hitler stood for and represented. We like to think that society has gotten to a place where these kinds of things would never be accepted. That’s why the “never forget” phrase regarding the Holocaust came about. It turns out people don’t need to fully forget. They just need to be distracted enough by the right memes.
Who Is the Chief Villain of Our Modern World?
Regardless of the cute machinations of people like Darryl Cooper who joke about Churchill being the “chief villain” of World War II, it’s only darkly funny because of how obvious it is that Hitler is/was the chief villain. Hitler is more than just the chief villain of World War II. He is practically the chief villain of all time. Any time there is a force that the Americans or democratic nations want to war with; it is common to liken that person to Hitler.
A short aside: when I was in Israel, visiting the Holocaust museum, the guides made a very stark point. They wanted to make it explicitly clear that the men who committed these acts, were not monsters. That may be counter intuitive to hear. The point of this statement, however, was very profound. These guides said that when people view others who commit acts of evil as monsters, they stop holding them responsible.
It makes it harder to recognize where evil comes from; and what it looks like. In this museum there were installations telling the personal stories not just of survivors or victims; but of Nazi guards. Showing them as fathers, and husbands. Not monsters who live in caves away from society. But men who ruled in it.
Home Grown Evil Is Harder To Detect
Some people would say Donald John Trump is the chief villain of our modern world and potentially in the way that Darryl Cooper says Churchill was in World War II. Donald Trump hasn’t exterminated six million people from a single minority group within our country. Obviously not. But today, leaders and citizens across the world regard him as a menace to the international order.
He may be thought of as a modest pest, or a total psychopath depending on who you ask. If you actually took trade as seriously as military operations you would see Donald Trump having an undeclared (trade) war against the entire world right now. Not even Hitler did that. He kept allies in Italy, Japan, and other parts of the world. It is not wise to threaten the entire world at once. How could he be doing that on behalf of all Americans? Nobody voted for that. Most Americans (including some of Trump’s most adamant supporters) are furious with the way these tariffs are going.
That’s actually part of how Trump has become so unpopular today.
Age Differences Between Hitler & Trump Regimes
Hitler was 56 when he committed suicide in a bunker. Donald Trump is 78 years old. I mean look at Trump’s cabinet and you’ll find the average age is somewhere around 54.
For more reference, Joseph Goebbels was 47 years old when he died. A prominent figure of this insane war machine, on the propaganda side, was a child – compared to Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and other senior members (from both parties) of the American Congress. Also, comparing these figures of history without taking into account their lifestyle differences would be irresponsible. Hitler was 36 when he wrote Mein Kampf, meaning that essentially his entire professional life was within politics.
On the other hand, Donald Trump was already a figure in public life prior to unveiling himself as a player in the political realm. For a while, people didn’t know Trump as brash, even though he always flaunted gold and other flashy displays. He has mostly been soft-spoken, including the volume of his speech.
Compare that to most of Hitler’s public speeches and his fiery tone, loud volume, and explosive ability to captivate crowds.
Why Would Anybody Want To Be Compared To Hitler Today?
People help Trump by comparing him to Hitler, and we need to confront that honestly instead of letting both sides keep bungling it. On the left they have said that Trump is Hitler (literally) for infractions as small as the “very fine people” quote. On the right there are people who literally treat Trump like Jesus Christ.
Though the people surrounding Trump are generally loyal to a fault, he does not have nearly the approval rating that Adolf Hitler did at his peak. In 1938, Hitler’s regime boasted a 99.1% approval rating in a national referendum, with 99.6% reported voter turnout. Yes, it was under the shadow of coercion and propaganda. But it still revealed an uncomfortable fact: Hitler enjoyed mass loyalty at home during his rise. Moreover if you think of Trump as a cheater, and you also think that Hitler rigged the numbers there, who cheated harder/better/bigger? Hitler. Trump can’t shine a candle to him.
On the other hand, one of the most contemptible things about Trump that he is revealing now, is that he has antithetical financial interests to the American people.
Hitler portrayed himself as a servant of the nation (however dark and twisted that vision was) compared to Trump who is known for nothing but self-dealing.
Trump is a traitor.
Hitler was a patriot.
Faking Approval Or Not, Hitler Beats Trump By a Resounding Margin
Hitler was able to forge a result of near perfection, 99% approval.
Donald Trump?
According to an ABC report, “Trump has lowest 100-day approval rating in 80 years: POLL.” He is underwater – and he actually has been for most of his political career.
Despite bragging endlessly about a “historic landslide” victory in 2024, the data shows it was a marginal win at best, a win fueled more by exhaustion and distrust in a broken system than any tidal wave of support. Perhaps the biggest reason Trump beat Harris was because of the economy. Despite his professed plans being regarded as bad by many economists, it seems that the American political class and large enough swaths of the general public believed Trump would still handle things better than Harris would have in terms of international negotiations. Trump’s recent tariff debacles has certainly cast doubt on that, if not fully undermined it.
Yet Trump repeats the “landslide” myth like a prayer bead mantra: because if he says it often enough, some people will believe it – and even more will surrender to the exhaustion of arguing against it. That is how he manufactures agreement sometimes.
How Both Sides Botched the Hitler Comparison
The right – Trump’s defenders, sycophants, and opportunists – either troll and relish in the Hitler comparison, or quietly accept it because it looks like strength. Even if they don’t believe Trump is a dictator-in-the-making, they understand that appearing feared can be politically useful. Even if that fear comes at the cost of comparisons to horrible people like Adolf Hitler. Others simply ignore the parallels, offering loyalty no matter what atrocities are hinted at or exposed. After all, strongmen stay in power by the loyalty of cowards. Trump’s cabinet selections are a testament to that.
The left, meanwhile, diluted the warning by overusing it. If everyone is a Nazi, no one is. If everything Trump does is categorically described as authoritarian, nothing he does can be seen that way. By screaming “fascist” at every Republican within earshot, a lot of liberals have discredited themselves over the last decade in terms of identifying authoritarianism at home.
They drained the word of its historical weight.
That is something Trump has been good at, and useful for some.
1 Nazi, 2 Nazi, Red Nazi, Blue Nazi
Trump undermining things like Nazism as a threat, hasn’t been without help from the so-called “opposition.” When AOC and others called detention centers at the border “concentration camps” years ago it was dismissed broadly speaking, because it wasn’t really true. Whoever was responsible for the strategy & messaging about these things did a great disservice to the cause of immigrants, and democracy-loving nations.
It ended up dismantling the ability to properly diagnose and criticize bad border policy because the sensationalism was more important to Democrats than real opposition.
Flash Forward, Had Anybody Listened To Me, Could We Have Avoided This Mess
The fake concentration camp narrative promoted by AOC was years before Trump institutionalized a literal human trafficking pipeline to El Salvador. Now where is she at with it? There are people in the broadcasting and political space who have referred to the Salvadoran prison as a “death camp” or things of that nature. Without so much as clarity on the mechanization of murder like Hitler had constructed. These voices are promoted to the point that the idea of concentration camps at the border was mocked, as if the potential wasn’t real.
Leftists also laughed while Trump’s cultists grew stronger and less embarrassed because of how absurd they can be.
But these
Modern Day (American) Hitler vs. ___ ?
The left has made themselves look weak by the comparison to a Hitlerian Trump, precisely what Trump needs to keep winning. You can see this in terms of very simple things like, if Trump is Hitler, why aren’t Democrats comparing themselves to Churchill, or FDR, and others in the Allied Powers who actually defeated Hitler? The best they have come up with is “not Trump” or “never Trump” or things that are in direct opposition to Trump. That is rhetorically a concession actually.
It’s dangerous but Trump is very good at being taken too seriously at the wrong times and not seriously enough at the right times.
People who disagree with the (2) party system generally stay silent, or they enjoy mocking both parties, or some offer token support to whoever seems less crazy that week. Yet over time, even reluctant compliance shapes behavior more than most people admit. Most of the time it breeds inaction.
Trump Isn’t As Good of a Dictator As Hitler Was
Trump isn’t Hitler. He’s not even Hitler-like. Not even close. The comparisons that can be drawn make sense, especially from academics who studied World War II but haven’t paid much attention to the present. Though people have unilaterally decided that Trump is a riveting speaker, just because he blabs on for hours at rallies, he is mostly monotone and bad at remembering his lines. Sure he riffs. It’s entertaining when he goes off the cuff.
He makes bad jokes. He’s clownish, so occasionally, he’s funny. By comparison, Hitler was not really known for cracking jokes, was he? No.
Never Forget Hitler’s Real Name: Adolf Schickelgruber
It’s not exactly the kind of name that strikes fear into the hearts of men. Like other murderous regime leaders before him, Adolf Schickelgruber changed his name to fit the moment, the time, and his ideology. On the other hand, Trump is Donald Trump’s ideology. Perhaps he takes some inspiration from history. But in certain aspects of his speech patterns you can see into the core of his belief system (if you can call it that).
He constantly says “…like something nobody’s ever seen before.” From the perspective of his thought process about himself, he truly views himself as one of a kind. The fact that he’s unlike any President before him is almost inarguable. Whether that’s a good or bad thing people could discuss. On the other hand, is Trump like something nobody’s ever seen before? In some cases, sure. In other cases he’s just like something we’ve all seen before in place(s) we wouldn’t expect those things to be. Like a petty conman you expect on the street, selling you fake gold watches: you don’t expect that petty conman to be running the Executive branch of the American federal government.
Or, a real estate hustler, you expect to see in a high rise in NYC – not the White House.
You get the picture.
Imagine Fearing President Schickelgruber
If his name was Donald John Schickelgruber, though? Would he still come off like something nobody’s ever seen before? Calling him Hitler is like something people think they’ve seen before. But his novelty, in some ways, comes from an all-too American sense of self-involvement. Hitler succumbed to a national socialist proposition, which enabled him to become like a devil among men. Larger than life; in his own ugly way.
Trump doesn’t have the ideological zeal or organizational focus to pull off a Third Reich. He isn’t devoted to a bigger (even if evil) cause other than himself. Trump is running a racket, not a Reich. He is just a petty con man who figured out how to skim off the Treasury’s U.S. General Fund, selling crypto coins and installing personal loyalty into key federal jobs. It’s a smart plan, I’m not going to lie. But it is criminal like the plot of Superman III, or Office Space.
A cheap knockoff, mashed together with some reality television style political theater. The scale and scope of this operation, and the fact that they are currently getting away with it, is certainly remarkable. But that’s actually an indictment of the public – which is the flipside of the authoritarian coin.
The public likes to ride the wave of an authoritarian or blame them.
Too few people want to take responsibility for how this came to be.
Authoritarian Leaders Grow From Fascistic Societies
Authoritarians come to power when they’re popular enough which means that enough of the public actually feels represented by the will or whims of dictatorial fascists like Hitler. Some regime changes have come from military coups led by people who were not necessarily notable public orators, sure. But, it’s not popular to blame the public for the rise of people like Hitler, or Trump. But it’s true. Even those people who pretend to oppose Trump just to gain clout from it are to blame. Rather than figuring out mechanisms to actually stop his worst instincts or self-dealing consequences, these individuals profit from pretending to care. That’s a lethal kind of complicity.
Settling the Score: Trump Loses To Hitler Every Single Time
Hitler – monstrous as he was – focused on imperial pursuits. He believed in a very sick, perverted vision, and was willing to die for it. Trump, by contrast, believes only in himself. He would rather bankrupt the country, betray his voters, and dismantle the entire system for the sake of a few extra dollars than he would ever take a loss himself.
That is not strength. That is weakness disguised with bluster.
Trump may relish comparisons to great leaders – even tyrants – but he cannot stand when people accurately depict him for what he really is: a small, petty crook with even smaller dreams, kept alive politically by decades of corrupt dealings and improper favors. His father’s fortune made him wealthier than the average American and insulated him from the populist ideals he later exploited to sell himself. If Americans ever find the courage to break out of the spectacle – if they stop letting fear, anger, and exhaustion dictate their allegiances – they won’t bring Trump down because he’s Hitler 2.0. They’ll bring him down because he isn’t even that competent.
It will be because Trump could never be as popular as Hitler.
