XPost: talk.politics.misc, talk.politics.guns, or.politics   
   XPost: alt.atheism, alt.atheism   
   From: patriot1@protonmail.com   
      
   Unhinged Trump calls political enemies ‘vermin,’ echoing dictators Hitler,   
   Mussolini   
      
   On Veterans Day, the former president vowed to “root out” his liberal   
   opponents, drawing backlash from historians who say his rhetoric is   
   reminiscent of authoritarians   
   By Marianne LeVine   
      
      
   Former president Donald Trump denigrated his domestic opponents and   
   critics during a Veterans Day speech Saturday, calling those on the other   
   side of the aisle “vermin” and suggesting that they pose a greater threat   
   to the United States than countries such as Russia, China or North Korea.   
   That language is drawing rebuke from historians, who compared it to that   
   of authoritarian leaders.   
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   “We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists   
   and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of   
   our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections,” Trump said toward   
   the end of his speech, repeating his false claims that the 2020 election   
   was stolen. “They’ll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy   
   America and to destroy the American Dream.”   
      
   Trump went on further to state: “the threat from outside forces is far   
   less sinister, dangerous and grave than the threat from within. Our threat   
   is from within. Because if you have a capable, competent, smart, tough   
   leader, Russia, China, North Korea, they’re not going to want to play with   
   us.”   
      
   Trump pushes authoritarian agenda for second term   
   1:53   
   Since leaving the White House in 2021, Donald Trump has said he would   
   approach a second term as president with an expansive view of executive   
   branch authority. (Video: JM Rieger/The Washington Post, Photo: Jabin   
   Botsford/The Washington Post)   
      
   The former president’s speech in Claremont, N.H., echoed his message of   
   vengeance and grievance, as he called himself a “very proud election   
   denier” and decried his legal entanglements, once again attacking the   
   judge in a New York civil trial and re-upping his attacks on special   
   counsel Jack Smith. In the speech, Trump once again portrayed himself as a   
   victim of a political system that is out to get him and his supporters.   
      
   Yet Trump’s use of the word “vermin” both in his speech and in a Truth   
   Social post on Saturday drew particular backlash.   
      
   “The language is the language that dictators use to instill fear,” said   
   Timothy Naftali, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s School   
   of International and Public Affairs. “When you dehumanize an opponent, you   
   strip them of their constitutional rights to participate securely in a   
   democracy because you’re saying they’re not human. That’s what dictators   
   do.”   
      
   Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian at New York University, said in an email to   
   The Washington Post that “calling people 'vermin’ was used effectively by   
   Hitler and Mussolini to dehumanize people and encourage their followers to   
   engage in violence.”   
      
   “Trump is also using projection: note that he mentions all kinds of   
   authoritarians ‘communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left’ to   
   set himself up as the deliverer of freedom,” Ben-Ghiat said. “Mussolini   
   promised freedom to his people too and then declared dictatorship.”   
      
   Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, told The Post “those who try to   
   make that ridiculous assertion are clearly snowflakes grasping for   
   anything because they are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome and   
   their entire existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the   
   White House.”   
      
   Cheung later clarified that he meant to say their “sad, miserable   
   existence" instead of their “entire existence.”   
      
   Trump also received widespread criticism and condemnation recently from   
   groups such as the Anti-Defamation League for saying in an interview that   
   undocumented immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.”   
      
   Domingo Garcia, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens,   
   the oldest Hispanic civil rights group in the country, said at the time   
   that Trump’s comments about blood indicate his language is “getting more   
   extreme,” comparing it to Nazi propaganda about Jewish people.   
      
   Trump’s divisive rhetoric comes as he remains the clear polling leader in   
   the dwindling GOP primary field and as he and his allies have already   
   started to plot ways for the federal government to punish his critics and   
   opponents should he win back the White House next November. The Post   
   recently reported that Trump — who faces 91 charges across four criminal   
   cases — is naming the people he wants to investigate and prosecute, and   
   his associates are drafting plans to potentially invoke the Insurrection   
   Act on his first day in office, which would allow him to deploy the   
   military in response to civil demonstrations.   
      
   In addition to attacking the “radical left,” he also spent part of the New   
   Hampshire speech lashing out at a New York judge overseeing his civil   
   fraud case, calling New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) a   
   “disaster” and reiterating his descriptions of Smith as “deranged.” Smith   
   has brought two indictments against Trump: one in a case charging Trump   
   with illegally hoarding classified documents and the other alleging he   
   sought to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power by seeking to overturn   
   the results of the 2020 election, leading to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on   
   the U.S. Capitol.   
      
   “The Trump-hating prosecutor in the case, his wife and family despise me   
   much more than he does and I think he’s about a ten,” he said. “They’re   
   about a 15, on a scale of ten. … He’s a disgrace to America.”   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)