Trump and the Big Lie
The Dark Connection to Mein Kampf
“Make the lie big. Make it simple. Keep saying it. Eventually, they will believe it.
- Adolf Hitler
It's being reported that Donald Trump is planning to revoke the temporary legal status of 240,000 Ukrainians who escaped the murderous Russian war. They face deportation back to the war zone.
In the America of 2025 humanitarian aid and the international rule of law are considered something for suckers. Cruelty is the point.
This potential forced mass removal of people comes after Trump posted an AI video of him and Benjamin Netanyahu enjoying drinks on top of the charnel house that is Gaza. It's not just cruelty. It is a celebration of genocide.
In some very real ways, we are back in the dark days of the late 1930s. And so maybe it's time we talk about the lessons Trump has learned from Adolf Hitler.
Ivana Trump said that Trump's nighttime reading consisted of a collection of Adolf Hitler speeches. It's where he picked up lines that denigrated his enemies as "vermin" or accused immigrants of "poisoning the blood."
It is where he got the idea for his Trump rallies.
Marine General John Kelly, who was Trump's former chief of staff, was just one of many who tried to warn people in the lead-up to the election. Kelly warned that Trump was a fascist who often praised the Nazi regime.
At one point in the closing days of the campaign, Trump took to the stage to reassure the crowds that he was not like Hitler.
In any other time, even having to make that statement would kill a politician's career. With Trump, it fueled his rise to victory.
The Power of the Big Lie
Professor Peter Fritzsche wrote an essay that pointed out that the attempts by critics to warn people about Trump's fascist tendencies actually played into Trump's hand. He writes:
"To suggest that Trump was a fascist was to identify many of the attributes that made him appealing [to American voters]."
So how can this be?
It all comes down to the Big Lie.
In Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote that politicians got into trouble when they told small lies. The public was always on the lookout for small lies and inconsistencies. When politicians got caught out in a small lie, it fed into public cynicism.
Hitler blew this away by promoting the "big lie."
He explained the simple brilliance of such a move:
"In the greatness of the lie, there is always a certain amount of credibility…[and] the broad masses of people can be more easily corrupted in the deeper reaches of their heart."
Hitler wrote that by driving home a big lie, facts ceased to matter.
"Even when presented with the true facts, [the average voter] will still doubt and waver and will continue to take at least some of the lie to be true. For the most impudent lie always leaves something lingering behind it, a fact which is known only too well to all great expert liars in this world."
Trump: The Modern Master of the Big Lie
I wouldn't blame you if you skipped Donald Trump's latest celebration of mendacity and narcissism in his speech to Congress. However, Bernie Sanders framed it in the context of the big lie principle:
"The big lie. Boy, did we hear that tonight."
Sanders continued:
"You say something that is grossly false and say it over and over again and have right-wing social media blast it out endless times until people actually believe it. Rather than address the real issues the American people are facing, we find ourselves wasting time discussing Trump's absurdities."
The big lie has driven Trump's political success from the beginning. He continues to rely on it as he drives deep wedges into American society and blows apart longstanding alliances and global partnerships.
It's what allows Pete Navarro to go on Fox TV and claim that Mexican drug cartels have taken over Canada.
And what Trump and his sock puppets understand is this: even when outlets like CNN provide so-called fact checks on how many lies are in his speeches, they are also diligently repeating the lies.
What Comes Next?
Hitler was a violent and nihilistic psychopath.
Trump, at this stage, is still just a huckster turned president.
But the danger of the big lie is that it will lead to even bigger lies.
Arguing with a liar isn't going to change this. What’s needed is determined resistance and an unwillingness to cede any more ground to the world's foremost liar.
In Canada, we have adopted the phrase "Elbows up" – knowing that we will have to get in close and trade hard economic blows.
Anything less would turn our nation into a vassal state. And that is not going to happen. Not now. Not ever.
I was born and grew up in the City of Chicago but immigrated to Canada in 1997 and became a citizen in 2001. If the two countries ever came to blows, my elbows are up to defend my adopted homeland!
Is there a way Canadian Parliament can introduce a new bill to fast track these refugees into Canada?