It turns out that Trump isn’t just copying Hitler’s fascism and White Supremacy–there are other parallels. Hitler also believed in tariffs and evidently also wanted Greenland.
Who knew? I certainly didn’t.
If I had read about this anywhere but in the Atlantic, I’d have dismissed it out of hand. (And even then, despite my longtime respect for and reliance upon that publication, I did some limited research that confirmed the article.) The article was titled “Hitler’s Greenland Obsession” and the subtitle read “After creating an economic mess with ill-advised tariffs, Hitler looked north in pursuit of resources and national security.”
Tariffs?? I hadn’t known about that similarity, either. Perhaps our mentally-limited President actually can read–I’d previously dismissed the assertion that Trump kept a copy of Mein Kampf on his nightstand–a charge made by his first wife, Ivana, during their divorce proceedings–because it seemed obvious that even an elementary literacy was beyond him.
According to the article, Greenland was “a lifelong preoccupation of Adolf Hitler’s.” The article cited stenographic notes from a lunchtime conversation in 1942 in which Hitler said that he’d been fascinated by Fridtjof Nansen, a Norwegian explorer who led the first team to cross Greenland’s interior. Hitler’s personal copy of History of the Expedition is in the rare-book collection of the Library of Congress, and it bears his personal bookplate—ex libris, eagle, and swastika. When Hitler rose to power, that early interest became strategic; in 1938, he sent Hermann Göring to Greenland, “ostensibly to explore the island’s flora and fauna. However, Hitler’s true intent may have been not scientific, but economic.”
In a drive to move Germany toward economic self-sufficiency, Hitler had imposed draconian tariffs, refused to honor foreign-debt obligations, and sought to wean the nation off Norwegian whale-oil consumption. The problem was that Germany used whale oil not only for margarine, a staple of the German diet, but also in the production of nitroglycerin, a key component for the munitions industry.
It wasn’t only Greenland. In 1939, Germany dropped weighted steel rods stamped with swastikas and Nazi flags on Antarctica.
Hitler dismissed those who opposed the acquisition of land on the grounds of human rights as “scribblers.” No divine authority dictated how much land a people possessed or occupied, Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf: “National borders are made by men, and they are changed by men.” A country’s claim to territory was based on its ability to impose brute force over another, a principle that dated back, Hitler continued, to days of the “might of a victorious sword,” when Germanic tribes asserted themselves with blood and iron. “Und nur in dieser Kraft allein liegt dann das Recht,” Hitler wrote, a maxim that, distilled into English, translates as “Might makes right.”
After Nazi Germany occupied Denmark, Hitler made moves on Greenland, prompting the U.S. and Henrik Kauffmann, the Danish ambassador in Washington, D.C.–who distanced himself from the German occupiers in Denmark–to sign an “Agreement Between the United States of America and Denmark Respecting the Defense of Greenland.” The preamble of that document warned of “the imminent danger that Greenland “may be converted into a point of aggression against nations of the American continent.” The agreement allowed the United States to “improve and deepen” harbors and to “construct, maintain and operate such landing fields, seaplane facilities and radio and meteorological installations as necessary” in order to protect North America against aggression.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt publicly hailed the agreement the next day. In America, Ambassador Kauffmann, as the defender of “free Denmark,” was proclaimed “king of Greenland”; in Nazi-occupied Copenhagen, he was charged with treason…
When the war was over and the democratically elected government in Denmark was restored, it willingly reaffirmed this American protection in the 1951 Defense of Greenland agreement, which remains in effect today.
The article contains many more details, and those interested in this bit of little-known history will find it fascinating. What I am finding both fascinating and very disconcerting, however, are the constantly emerging similarities between MAGA and Nazism, between the preoccupations of Adolf Hitler and those of Donald Trump.
Historians have pointed out the striking similarities between the slogans increasingly being employed by the Trump administration and those of the Third Reich. The social-media channels of the Trump administration have been turned into “unrelenting streams of xenophobic and Nazi-coded messages and imagery.” Historians have long noted the extent to which “borrowing” went both ways– Hitler modeled his anti-Jewish Nuremberg Laws on America’s Jim Crow. Comparisons of ICE to the Gestapo are growing, and not without reason.
It absolutely can happen here–unless We the People say NO.
Apparently Hitler knew the difference between Greenland and Iceland but didn’t offer to buy or invade either country. We are now on the brink of war with Iran due to Trump’s ending the workable nuclear pact and his threat of surrounding Iran with our greatest battleships and aircraft carriers prior to scuttling the “peace talks” with Iran. He told us in 2016 that he wants to know why “can’t we just nuke ’em?” and “why didn’t this country take the spoils of war it was entitled to at the end of earlier wars?”. His rash ruse of using drones to blast “drug carrying boats from Venezuela” and killing all aboard (with no evidence or proof) ended quickly with his takeover of Venezuela’s oil fields as soon as his invasion and kidnapping of their president was successful. His aim was always the oil fields but fortunately he hasn’t resorted to his priority solution of “…nuke ’em” but it was only yesterday he ended the peace talks with Iran. Hitler’s aim was much more than killing Jews and Trump’s aim has gone far beyond deporting immigrants from America.
What is ahead from him globally on this end of February, entering March weekend? “What goes around, comes around!” it may be the end of his pretense to seeking peace anywhere.
“Historians have pointed out the striking similarities between the slogans increasingly being employed by the Trump administration and those of the Third Reich.” And it’s working much faster for Trump in this age of electronics and the global media reach.
If I remember correctly, JoAnn, we just killed four more in “drug boats,” and Trump bragged that “nobody is going fishing anymore around that area.”
However, while Trump may have a vague knowledge of Mein Kampf, he cannot read. There are clerks who worked on The Apprentice who’ve made that acknowledgment. Therefore, I’m going under the assumption that Stephen Miller is responsible for Hitler’s musings, even though I believe he is a Jew. He’s also a Zionist which makes you wonder why the Zionists are so willing to wipe Palestinians off the map…oh, nevermind.
Another strange mental twist I don’t even care to explore. I hope Americans caught the news that’s desperately trying to be suppressed, that Israel returned the remains of Palestinian hostages in bags full of body parts. The depraved indifference means they shouldn’t be allowed to mix in society. Instead of providing Bibi and his Fourth Reich with money and weapons, we should be hunting them down and hanging them. No trials necessary.
Give Israel’s inhabitants a 48-hour notice and then nuke the place. I’ve read more than enough about Bibi and the Knesset to just wipe them off the planet to avoid prison space at The Hague.
I think Tucker Carlson nailed it about Mike Huckabee; he’s somehow been brainwashed and no longer thinks clearly. #NoKidding
If you think 48 hours is too harsh, how about 72 hours tops…?
You stepped on my idea about Stephen Miller and “Mein Kampf” (“My Struggle”). I think Miller has recently read it to him in the form of nightly bedtime stories. What a pair, those two …
A few summers ago, my wife and I went on a cruise up the west coast of Greenland and northern Canada all the way up past Devon Island that sits at about 75 degrees North. We flew into Kangalussset (Long Fjord), a former USAF base converted to commercial. The “terminal” was little more than a caddy shack. Yes, the U.S. still has some bases on Greenland property. Gotta beware of those damned Russians.
Our impression? Rugged beauty. LOTS of ice. Fauna? Seals and polar bears on land and the usual collection of cetaceans in the sea. Great. Since the sun was always low – even in July – the photography was easy with plenty of texture in the photos.
Trump’s Hitler fixation is all part of his pathology of fundamental insecurity and perverted notion of strength. As I see it, the main differences between Hitler and Trump is that Hitler was smart and could/did read. Trump is/does neither. Moreover, Hitler tried to couch his goals, bigotry and hate in somewhat misleading language. Trump/Miller aren’t nearly that clever and seem to actually revel in offending and scaring as many people as possible.
One is forced to once again ask: Who are the 36% who still approve of this next of vipers? They must think they’re all on a mission from God. Sure. The world has heard that story before.
Given Trump’s malevolent, or whatever, narcissism, he probably thinks that he can follow Hitler’s path, but do it better, bring that he’s a winner, never a looser, never ever, ever, ever. Oh, it’s Malignant Narcissism.
Miller is a sick puppy. also, as is self-evident to anyone who is not a MAGAfreak.
I believe he is, indeed, Jewish, but, then so were Al Capone’s Jewish henchmen.
Lot’s of very sensitive issues to unwrap here. Power elites with dark side behavior shield themselves from exposure because they can afford to finance all the guard rails in their favor. This is way above my pay grade to connect with all the bases of authenticated facts. What I do control is my vote and ensuring my registration is pluperfect and complete understanding of the ballot to send the right message.
Todd. There you go again, calling for nuclear war. Just how is it you differ from Trump? Even he can apparently read from a teleprompter, so literacy doesn’t answer my question.
The Rodney Dangerfield of American Politics probably has some very basic reading skills and extremely limited comprehension of the little he does read. Did anyone doubt that he was telling the truth about not having read Project 2025? It’s also evident that he is malleable, since he’s likely to agree with the last person who spoke to him..
Add to that his basic inability to correctly interpret the lessons history has tried to teach us and what we get is a mad man in charge of government. He promised to lower the price of eggs and that price is one of the few that have come down. Too many people think that’s great. Too few know that egg prices are down, because Avian Flu no longer a problem.