Trump winning reelection in 2024 poses an extreme threat to democracy because of the damage already done through his increasingly authoritarian discourse. Normalizing a lie through repetition creates a myth that leaders use to build and mobilize support; it also indicates anti-democratic behavior. In 2021, Trump’s refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power incited a violent insurrection. He now campaigns on the myth of January 6^th as a symbol of true American patriotism, and in 2024, warned that there would be a “blood bath for the country” should he lose. Trump pursues strategies similar to those Hitler used for insidious division, radicalization of his base, and delegitimization of opponents.

Hitler’s promulgation of the military’s ‘Myth of 1914’ manipulated Germans to believe they would have triumphed if their military was in charge instead of democratic leaders. Hitler exploited another myth that Germany had been ‘stabbed in the back’ by the German Social Democratic Party into “the big lie”. It was the pairing of an idyllic past with the loss caused by being stabbed in the back that made that myth so powerful and believable. In a similar manner, Trump exploits the MAGA crowd’s belief that a better version of America has been lost. Over 70% of Republicans remain committed to Trump, who has framed his base’s identity against what he calls “emboldened radical-left Democrats”. Hyperpolarization weakens democracy, which only functions when parties collaborate, communicate, and compromise. Trump demonizes and delegitimizes his opposition, employs defamatory and fearmongering tactics, then plays victim to witch hunts, hoaxes, and anti-white and Christian sentiments. Trump’s white and deeply conservative followers fear a loss of the supremacy of white majority America and believe Trump’s declaration, “I alone can fix it.” In 2017, Trump claimed he would “drain the swamp in D.C.” to pit his base against our government.

Historian Benjamin Hett asserts both Trump and Hitler were skilled at “tapping into the anger of people who felt they were the victims” (49) because they appealed to the white, rural bases that felt disenfranchised. Hitler blamed Jewish people for Germany’s WWI loss and convinced Germans that they controlled sectors of the government and economy. Yet, Jewish people were not among the economic and political elite in Germany. This type of scapegoating restores a glorified mythical past where one group with ‘virtuous’ traits is entitled to domination over another. Trump dehumanizes and blames minority and ethnic groups like immigrants and Muslims, yet exalts the January 6^th jailed insurrectionists as “unbelievable patriots”. This is the same as Hitler had done to the Jews, Roma, and political dissidents v. how he idealized Aryans in Germany because they were “racially pure, genetically healthy, and socially productive and loyal to the state” (2).

Hitler had the radio, and Trump now has X. Hitler combined “the big lie” with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an antisemitic publication to spread paranoia and hate via state-controlled radio broadcasts and publications. Prior to 1933, German radio programs were educational and apolitical; yet, in just one month of nonstop anti-Jewish broadcasts, Hitler successfully solidified his base of support in areas predisposed to anti-Jewish sentiments. Hitler surrounded himself with skilled and powerful allies, like Goebbels, to push propaganda; so too has Trump with Kellyanne Conway, to invent ‘alternative facts’. Trump has exponentially more powerful technology at his disposal with algorithms and AI deployed on social media and the internet.

Like Hitler, Trump’s white supremacy ideology dictates his actions. Trump built campaign traction in 2015 on the myth that immigrants were illegally entering the country and stealing jobs, when the seasonal migrant workforce makes up 73% of agricultural workers. His hate and fear-mongering led him to claim that Mexico was “not sending their best [people]…They’re bringing drugs [and] crime. They’re rapists.” He also claimed immigrants come from “shithole countries”. In 2018, Trump legalized a “zero-tolerance” policy that separated over 5,000 children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border in order to deter migration.

Following the 2017 “Unite the Right” white nationalist rally that killed a counter-protestor in Charlottesville, Trump claimed that there were “very fine people on both sides” and tweeted that “the history and culture of our great country [is] being ripped apart”. Trump opposed the removal of confederate statues, tweeting that their removal was an attack on “a Great American Heritage.” He condemned the NYT report “1619 Project” claiming it was a “warped, distorted” portrayal of American history, cultivating the “big lie” of the South. In a 2020 memorandum, Trump defunded federal training on critical race theory, claiming that it “run[s] counter to the fundamental beliefs for which our Nation has stood since its inception”. Many states have since passed legislation to ban CRT in schools.

A 2017 study shows that a memory, even if untrue, is reinforced by other people, which explains the power of these myths on Trump supporters. Trump, and like-minded sycophants on other “infotainment” media, desensitized the nation with a barrage of racist and untrue rhetoric. Yet, the underlying prejudice was once largely held in check by civility and institutions. These myths have consequences on public health and safety. A 2019 study reports a significant negative impact on the physical and mental health of immigrant families living in the U.S. with trauma and fear of deportation. In 2020, Trump jeopardized public safety by calling coronavirus a Democrat ‘hoax’, delaying a national preventative response that cost countless Americans their lives, denied the legitimacy of the National Institute of Health, and downplayed the severity of the virus’s threat. Trump’s rhetoric has led to a rise in hate crimes and of far-right white national extremist groups, like the Bugaloo or Proud Boys.

Where it might be viewed as hyperbole to compare Trump with Hitler, seditionists came very close to toppling our democracy in 2021. The lies Hitler told reinforced the post-WWI myths sufficiently to galvanize the German people into entering another war, which resulted in genocide. The danger of Trump’s reelection is twofold: that his radicalized base of supporters has already resorted to acts of violence to subvert free election and his radicalized base of Republican lawmakers are obstructing and repealing bipartisan legislation that protects all Americans. It is clear that when far-right political figures like Hitler and Trump come to power in a democracy, prominent political insiders shift from what Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt call ‘loyal democrat’ to ‘semi-loyal democrat”. Trump’s semi-loyal democrats, like Speaker Mike Johnson, seek sympathy with their goals and aim to spread disapproval of their rival to build internal support. Hitler and Trump would spout the external myths against Jewish people, immigrants, or elections, but their hand-selected political insiders would dismantle democracy internally, quietly attacking its very foundations found in our collaborative legislative processes and norms.

Yet, national myths can also cultivate a common national identity through shared values and encourage comradery through patriotism. They create opportunities for unity during turbulent national moments. Democratic leaders should promote truth and legitimacy in national history and prevent the spread of harmful national narratives that are not just untrue but genuinely believed. If societal norms continue to shift towards radical conservatism and our political parties are not more committed to democracy than they are their own self-interests, they enable authoritarianism. When nationalism is competing with the principles of democracy, we should all beware.

(Photo edited by Michelle Kondrich/The Washington Post; photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post; AP)