Historian and author Douglas Brinkley said Monday on MSNBC’s “Chris Jansing Reports” that former President Donald Trump “has been dabbling in Adolf Hitler his whole life.”
Saturday, at a rally, Trump said, “They’re poisoning the blood of our country. That is what they’ve done. They’ve poisoned mental institutions and prisons all over the world. Not just in South America or three or four countries, but they’re coming into our country from Africa and Asia, and they’re pouring into our country.”
When asked for his reaction, Brinkley said, “I heard a former president who is jiving on fascism. There’s no question about that being a line from Mein Kampf. He knows it. He has been dabbling in Adolf Hitler his whole life keeps Hitler’s speeches at his bedside. Mein Kampf seems to be the book that’s inspired Trump the most. So, it’s heinous because it’s the kind of language meant to belittle people, dehumanize them.”
He continued, “And we’re not making an anti-Trump comment when we’re saying he is a fascist, guys, that really we’re dealing with a fight in our country between democracy and fascism, and Trump’s telling you that. He doesn’t really mind the Hitler comparison because, at heart, he admires Hitler.”
Brinkley added, “So, we’re in a very grim place where the head of the Republican Party can use language like that and then people like Lindsey Graham shrug and say, ‘Oh, it’s just words, doesn’t mean much. It’s about the qborder and we care about the border security.’ He can have a tough border security stance, Donald Trump, but he should not be able to use language like that to poison our democratic bloodstream.”
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