Donald Trump held a rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday to present his vision for America in the closing days of his presidential campaign. It was reminiscent of another massive rally with a similar America First motto in the Garden in 1939. Both events were teeming with nativism, xenophobia, racism, and hate.
Trump served up his familiar smorgasbord of lies, hate, grievances, and exaggerations, but it was overshadowed by a slew of opening acts, including ones that branded Vice President Kamala Harris the “antichrist,” called her staff “pimp handlers,” labeled her “a Samoan-Malaysian low IQ,” called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” plus slurs against Jews, Arabs, and Blacks.
One of the more ominous threats came from Stephen Miller, Trump’s longtime adviser and an extremist on immigration issues, who declared, “America is for Americans and Americans only.” That sounded hauntingly like the 1939 rally’s message, “to restore America to the true Americans.”
Xenophobia has been a longtime Trump tool for instilling fear and anger, and it now includes calls for mass roundups and deportation of undocumented immigrants. In Sunday’s setting, it stirred memories of the pro-Nazi rally 85 years ago and the talk of removing undesirables from this good White, Christian nation. Trump has positioned himself as the defender of Christian nationalism and defender of “the cross of Christ.”
Undocumented immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” Trump has charged, echoing a favorite Hitler reference to the Jews and other non-Aryans. Hitler also called the Jews “the enemy within,” another phrase Trump has appropriated.
Trump and dictators
The former president has said he has “no problem” with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, but “we have a bigger problem, in my opinion, with the enemy from within.”
He was referring to former speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Adam Schiff as well as the “far Left,” assorted generals, and the mainstream media. He speaks frequently about using the military and other presidential powers to avenge his multitude of grievances.
Former aides have said Trump had to be talked out of deploying the military against American citizens, notably targeting demonstrators protesting the killing of George Floyd in 2020.
Kash Patel, a former senior adviser, has repeatedly warned the media that if Trump wins, “We’re going to come after you.” Another theme of the 1939 pro-Nazi rally was complaints about the liberal media, with speakers calling it the enemy of the people, another phrase Trump has embraced.
Immigration remains Trump’s strongest issue again this year, and his language is only getting darker, angrier, more incoherent, violent, rambling, vulgar, and threatening.
The most resounding warning about a second Trump presidency has come from two retired four-star generals who worked closely with the twice-impeached former president. They have called him a fascist with dark ambitions, an assessment seconded by more than a dozen of his former White House and administration officials.
John Kelly, Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff and a retired four-star Marine general, told The New York Times Trump is a “far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist” who “admires” dictators and fits the definition of “fascist, for sure.”
Mark Milley, the four-star US Army general who Trump appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, agreed. The former president is “a fascist to the core,” he said, and “the most dangerous person to this country.”
James Mattis, another retired four-star general who was Trump’s first secretary of defense, concurred. The former president Trump had made “a mockery of the Constitution,” he said.
A recent ABC News/Ipsos poll showed that 49% of the country agreed.
Kelly said Trump lamented, “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had.” Kelly said he had to explain that the American general’s first loyalty is to the Constitution, not to him personally, as he demanded. That was “a new concept for him,” Kelly recalled. “Hitler did some good things,” Trump told him.
The generals are not the only ones who see that returning the convicted felon to the Oval Office would be a clear and present danger to American democracy. Half of his former cabinet and numerous administration officials, most notably his former vice president, Mike Pence, have refused to endorse him. Some are even backing Harris.
He is also under indictment on multiple federal and state criminal charges and has been found liable for sexual assault.
Trump has talked about the “termination” of the Constitution so he could fix the 2020 election in his favor, and he has spoken of being dictator for a day (as if he’d stop there).
If Trump’s message were to be summed up in a single word, it would be retribution. He is intensely focused on avenging his grievances. A return to the presidency will mean settling scores against enemies, real and imagined, and he intends to use every instrument of government and maybe a few more to do that.
His first order of business – “within two seconds” – will be firing Special Counsel Jack Smith, he said, and possibly throwing him out of the country. If elected, he is expected to quash the multiple federal criminal charges currently pending against him. He also intends to begin what he falsely accused Joe Biden of doing, weaponizing the Justice Department to pursue his enemies. As he explained in a Glenn Beck interview when asked about locking up his foes, “You have no choice because they’re doing it to us.”
Trump, 78, is the oldest person ever to run for president. That should raise concerns not only about his health – he has consistently refused to release a full, unedited medical record – but also about his running mate and heir apparent to the MAGA movement, JD Vance. The junior senator from Ohio, who once compared Trump to Hitler, is half his age and considered much smarter, more articulate, and more clever.
New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, who has observed Trump for many years, said, “There’s no question that he’s more incoherent, more rambling. He’s older,” and his language is “darker” and “angrier.” She noted he is more “open to talking about revenge.”
Voters must consider fitness and character when voting. January 6 should be enough to disqualify Donald Trump.
American democracy cannot afford four more years of the worst president in history. And no group should know this better than American Jews, prime targets of that earlier xenophobic surge and – almost certainly – in line to repeat the experience if Trump’s open incitement of bigotry is approved by voters next week.
The writer is a Washington-based journalist, consultant, lobbyist, and a former legislative director at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.