There were reports during the successful Presidential campaign in 2016 of Donald Trump that his father Fred Trump was a closet sympathiser of the Nazis. If true, it would not have been as bizarre as it now sounds, for several US citizens were admirers of the Nazis and the discipline imposed by Hitler on Germany in the 1930s. In 2016, such reports were met with scepticism by Trump supporters as having been spread untruthfully by the formidable Clinton political machine. Hillary went so far as to accuse her Republican rival during their 2016 debate between them of being a “Russian agent”. All to no avail, for to the shock of many across the world, Trump defeated Hillary on 4 November 2016 to become the 45th President of the United States. He ran a moderately successful presidency, his worst instincts coming out only after his 4 November 2020 defeat at the hands of “low energy” (Trump’s description, probably accurate) of Biden. He refused to accept his defeat and proclaimed that it “had been stolen” from him by Biden. Breaking with tradition, he refused to attend the inauguration of President Biden in 2021. Meanwhile, in early January his supporters became violent, breaking into the US Capitol and setting fires along the way. “Hang Mike Pence” was the slogan, accompanied by a noose, when Pence refused to act unconstitutionally and declared Biden the winner in the counting of votes of the candidates. For upholding the US Constitution, Pence saw his political career fade away, despite his considerable administrative qualities and high standard of ethics.
As yet, there has been no publicly disclosed verdict on the quantum of responsibility of Trump for sparking the 6 January 2021 violence in the US capital. What we are seeing play out is an inexplicable change in the behaviour and policies of President Trump during the past six months of his present term. He treats his political opponents as enemies not just of himself but of the United States as an entirety. The Immigration Control Authority (ICE) is acting as a version of the way the Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo) did in the 1930s in Nazi Germany. ICE agents are invading cities and states won by the Democratic Party in the election. They are killing those who they regard as resisting their fearsome actions as fair game for murder. Cities across the US are demanding the withdrawal of ICE. The sledgehammer seems to be falling on those victims seen as black or Latino, with whites seldom being harmed. Known anti-Semites have been inducted into the Administration, even into the White House as assistants. Trump is going further and further in his inexplicable actions, even threatening to jail Democrat Governors such as Pritzker. The Democrats are not being treated as a legitimate political opposition, which is what they are, but as “enemies of the people” in shades of Nazi doctrine, which saw any political opposition as a public enemy to be harshly dealt with. Cities are burning across the US and even citizens are getting afraid of venturing out across the streets of the cities they live in, for fear of being stopped and shot by ICE agents, all of whom are backed by Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem. The President of the United States, still the most powerful country in the world, is becoming a threat to global peace and stability. The 2026 midterm elections are still months away, in November. By then, the foreign relations and the societal fabric of the US will have been torn apart. President Trump, please do not emulate Fred Trump in his impulses, now being put into action by you. Before it is too late to save your Presidency, please stop following the textbook idealised by Fred Trump. During his time, it was the genial Franklin Delano Roosevelt who was the President. Now it is you. Revert to being the Trump we admired, please.
