Could Donald Trump be the next Hitler?

[Destinysdaughter]

I pray to God he doesn't get elected as the next president but after just watching the C4 documentary about him, I fear for the future of the USA and consequently the world. Hitler was once a joke but then economic conditions changed and people wanted answers and Hitler was able to blame much of Germany's ills on the Jews much like Trump is doing with Mexicans, Muslims etc. His supporters seen equally fanatical and not open to any kind of rational debate. It really fucking scares me, the world seems to becoming much more intolerant and if economic conditions deteriorate further I worry about what will happen. Please do tell me IABU but I feel bloody uneasy about this...

[Dickybow321]

OK this is an old thread, but I've been Googling Trump as I'm a little bit scared at where this thing is heading. People were ridiculed for comparing trump to Hitler and also said he could never in a million years be elected.

His ex wife said he had a book that was a collection of Hitler speeches that he used to read. He has the same lies and propaganda style. He is attacking the press and calling on his followers to boycott news publications that don't suck up to him, effectively wanting state-run media like a dictatorship. Now he is ramping up the scapegoating of Muslims, as Hitler did with the Jews. I've got a really bad feeling about all this.

[malificent7]

How is a wqall on the border of Mexico sensible and why the fuck should Mexico pay for it. Likewise why is punishing women for abortion sensible? (head in hands).

[danielsk1969]

Trump is nowhere near as bad as Hitler! If you actually looked into his policies, you'd find that they are quite sensible. Nothing Hitlerian at all.

[Laiste]

Read thread from the beginning and got confused by posts saying '' Oh he'll never be nominated''. Then saw the date. sigh.

Interesting though. Lots of posters back in Jan said we've nothing to worry about, just wait and see... Well - we're really worrying now!

[flowersandsunshine]

Don't forget that no-one originally took the threat from Hitler seriously because he was obviously such a revolting specimen and such a complete nutter. Like Trump. They supported Hitler because they thought they could control him and use him to do what they want - get rid of the communists and socialists. But of course it didn't work out like that and Hitler didn't, unsurprisingly get less nutty once put in a position of extreme power, he just got madder and madder.

To all those thinking that Trump is all mouth and no trousers and won't really do any of the bad shit he's suggested like building walls, nuking people and locking up political oponents - you're wrong.

If he gets in, history suggests that access to unlimited power will mean he'll do that and worse.

We need to learn from history before it's too late to remove him.

Trump is no joke. He is a fascist.

[SenecaFalls]

Also, could I just make a point about the word Democrat used as an adjective. It's long been a ploy of Republicans to drop the "ic" wherever they can because they think it diminishes the notion that the Democratic Party may be more democratic with a small "c" than the Republican Party. So for example, as a Democrat, I say "I am a Democrat; I am a member of the Democratic Party. The Democratic candidates always get my vote." I know a lot of people in the UK would not be aware of this distinction so just thought I'd mention it. When people in the US drop the "ic" from the adjective use, it often signals that they are right-wing Republicans

[SenecaFalls]

I think Trump made a crucial error by refusing to participate in the last debate. For one thing, his absence gave Rubio more prominence, and Rubio made full use of the opportunity. For another, although Trump's tantrum played well with his core supporters nationally, it was a very un-midwestern thing to do and came across to some Iowans as disrespectful to them.

[Want2bSupermum]

Also there is Bloomberg.

[Want2bSupermum]

I think it will be interesting to see what happens with both Trump and HC in New Hampshire. I agree about a third candidate coming out and sweeping it.

[Lweji]

Maybe the third candidate will rise from Iowa's ashes to the finish line.

[ABetaDad1]

If Hilary continues to struggle I wonder what the Democratic party will do?

Trump has to prove he can do it in New Hampshire or the air will come out of his campaign.

[Mistigri]

I think the democrat result is still an estimate, it doesn't get confirmed for a couple of days. Nevertheless it's effectively a tie and not a great result for Clinton especially as she is going to get trampled all over in the next primary.

[ABetaDad1]

Democrat result just out Hilary just scrapped a win by a very small margin.

Apparently so I heard earlier this morning that some districts didn't get their votes counted in the Democrat race.

[Mistigri]

I think the markets probably fell more due to the perception that the possibility of President Sanders had increased (it's still a very slim chance IMO).

There was nothing in the republican voting pattern to scare the horses. Rubio's chances of the nomination have improved and he is at least marginally sane.

[ABetaDad1]

'causes price so fall' = causes prices to fall

[ABetaDad1]

The polls did seem to favour Trump going into he caucus but in the outturn Iowa voted as one would expect. Conservative right wing. Trump did better than you would expect for his kind of politics as did Rubio.

Iowa is about 1% of the national total vote and sends about 1% of delegates at the national convention. The test for Trump will be New Hampshire where he should do well. If he doesn't do well there I suspect his vote will slip away sharply.

At the moment its not clear cut on ether Republican or Democrat side. On a side note, even though the US stock market was closed when the results came out futures contracts continue trading through the night and US stock market futures prices fell on the result being announced.

Financial markets react in real time and a split vote leads to uncertainty and financial markets discount uncertainty (risk) which causes price so fall. This could end up being a very messy race and that will affect investment decisions and the economy as well as geopolitics.

[Mistigri]

the number of people who vote in these primaries is very low

That's true in absolute terms, but turnout last night was up 50% on 2012.

The received wisdom seems to be that a high turnout favours maverick candidates (because the assumption is that maverick candidates attract more passionate supporters, and are therefore better at getting people out to vote).

However this time it seems to have favoured the "establishment" candidate, who will end up with about the same number of delegates as Trump despite trailing the latter in the polls all the way through. That may be because Trump was successful not only at getting out the pro-Trump vote, but also provided strong motivation for the less batshit crazy element of the republican party to get off their backsides and vote for a more electable candidate.

[ABetaDad1]

I think Rubio won and Trump lost on second votes. I saw a poll a few days ago that showed Trump had a substantial majority first vote support but almost no one put Trump as their second vote.

[ABetaDad1]

Interesting result.

It has to remembered that the number of people who actually vote in these primaries is very low. They are activists and don't necessarily represent the popular floating voter.

Rubio is the Republican establishment's favoured candidate but that might not be the 'peoples' choice. The party machine will have put everything in to making sure his vote turned out and he seems to have won against Trump by virtue of that higher than expected turn out of his voter base.

I wonder if it was a very close race in the Republican side whether Trump would run as an independent? He has never ruled it out and if he gets a total number of votes almost or actually equal to the 'winning' candidate despite having fewer delegates he will argue he still has a mandate.

Cruz is too ultra conservative to attract many centre ground voters.

Democratic race matched the polls. Neck and neck. Both candidates are very Marmite. You either like them or you don't.

[CaveMum]

You have to wonder if the talking up of how popular Trump apparently is was a big ruse by the GOP. Set the bar so high he can't but fail to meet expectations and watch his supporters migrate to less controversial candidates.

[Want2bSupermum]

So Cruz took Trump with Rubio right behind him. I think it will be interesting to see how the votes go in New Hampshire because I think the other candidates are going to fall away in the next week. It really looks like it will be Rubio. Not sure if I like that choice.

I thought it was interesting that Bernie and HC were so close. Clearly a lot of Democrats also don't like her so much.

[Want2bSupermum]

So the news today has Trump doing last minute campaign with his family. LOVED the pig. I couldn't help but think of DC and his relationship with the pig! Trump also opened up his plane for kids to run around.

Kudos to Trump. The man has the best in the business managing his publicity.

[SenecaFalls]

Trump's appeal is very narrow. He simply won't be able to appeal to a broad enough mixture of voters to get past the anti-Mexican, anti-woman, anti-Muslim animus he has displayed. Now it is possible that, if he is the nominee, he will try to move more to the center for the general election. Most Republicans try to do this. Romney tried to do it and failed and he actually is more toward the center.

[ABetaDad1]

Reading American blogs the reasonably informed thinking is that the Republican establishment are backing Marco Rubio as he is preferred to either Cruz or Trump.

On the Democrat side the thinking is if Hilary is indicted it will only be after the nomination process is completed and if she is the winner of that process she will be forced to stand down. That will leave the Democrats with no candidate and that will open the way for the Democratic party hierarchy to 'select' the nomination candidate in an emergency which in this case will be agreed is Biden - without running another nomination process.

Bernie Sanders went to Obama last week - no one really knows why. If Hilary were eventually prosecuted some think Obama would pardon her as he leaves office.

Some of that may be conspiracy theory and some may be well informed. Many other permutations possible.

One theory I have heard is that many senior Democrats do not believe Hilary could beat Trump so if Trump wins the Republican nomination they may take emergency action to pick another candidate.