An Assassination Attempt Was Inevitable

Dennis Prager / July 16, 2024

There are consequences to virtually every mainstream media, office-holding Democrat, and left-wing academic labeling former President Donald Trump a Nazi, a fascist, a white supremacist, and a mortal threat to American democracy. One consequence is that more than a few people will want Trump dead—killed, if necessary; who would not want such an individual dead?

Here is a small number of incendiary comments:

—The cover story in The New Republic, June 2024, is “American Fascism”—featuring Trump drawn as Adolf Hitler: “Today, we at The New Republic think we can spend this election year in one of two ways. We can spend it debating whether Trump meets the nine or 17 points that define fascism. Or we can spend it saying, ‘He’s damn close enough, and we’d better fight.’”

—ABC News, Dec. 20, 2023, “Donald Trump’s history with Adolf Hitler and his Nazi writings” by Jonathan Karl: “There have been multiple reports of Trump privately admiring Hitler.”

—Bloomberg, April 13, “Trump’s Hitler Fascination Is an Ominous Echo of the 1930s” by Max Hastings

—The Associated Press, Dec. 27, 2023, “Trump says he didn’t know his immigration rhetoric echoes Hitler. That’s part of a broader pattern” by Jill Colvin.

—USA Today, June 27, “Did Trump say Hitler ‘did a lot of good things?'” by Maya Marchel Hoff.

—The Washington Post, Dec. 20, 2023, “Yes, it’s okay to compare Trump to Hitler. Don’t let me stop you” by Mike Godwin: “When people draw parallels between Donald Trump’s 2024 candidacy and Hitler’s progression from fringe figure to Great Dictator, we aren’t joking.”

—“Trump and Hitler: A Comparative Study in Lying” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024) by Henk de Berg, professor of German at the University of Sheffield.

—Politico, Dec. 10, 2023: “Why Biden’s campaign keeps linking Trump to Hitler”: “In most situations, comparing a political opponent to Adolf Hitler might seem like an extraordinary step. For Joe Biden’s campaign, it has become part of the routine of running against Donald Trump. … The campaign released a statement attacking Trump for having ‘channeled his role models as he parroted Adolf Hitler.’ … It was the fourth time in the past six weeks that Biden’s campaign has likened Trump’s remarks to Hitler’s.”

And even after Trump was nearly assassinated:

—In The Atlantic, July 14, David Frum writes: “Fascist movements are secular religions. Like all religions, they offer martyrs as their proof of truth. The Mussolini movement in Italy built imposing monuments to its fallen comrades. The Trump movement now improves on that: The leader himself will be the martyr in chief, his own blood the basis for his bid for power and vengeance.”

In addition to constant accusations of being a Hitler, the entire Left regularly lies about Trump or distorts what he said.

One of the biggest left-wing lies is that Trump referred to Nazis demonstrating in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 as “very fine people.” President Joe Biden has repeated this lie dozens of times, including at his recent debate with Trump. Indeed, Biden repeatedly claims that Trump’s alleged statement is the reason he decided to run for president (another lie).

On June 21, the fact-checking website Snopes ruled the charge “False”:

No, Trump Did Not Call Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists ‘Very Fine People.’

Snopes was about seven years too late, but at least it finally told the truth. Nevertheless, despite the fact Snopes leans left, its ruling has had no effect on Biden or any of the left-wing media.

Just last week, The New York Times, in a lead editorial titled “Donald Trump Is Unfit To Lead,” repeated the lie: “When America saw white nationalists and neo-Nazis march through the streets of Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 and activists were rallying against racism, Mr. Trump spoke of ‘very fine people on both sides.'”

For the record, many of us knew this was a lie from the outset. To cite one example, as early as Aug. 2019, PragerU released a video by then-CNN political analyst Steve Cortes, watched over 10 million times, titled “What Happened in Charlottesville?” It proved that the claim that Trump labeled neo-Nazis “very fine people” was a lie. The video, by the way, cost Cortes his job at CNN. His truth-telling on Charlottesville was too much for them.

Then there is the equally widespread charge—made in virtually every left-wing medium—that, like Hitler, Trump called political enemies “vermin.” As the title of a Washington Post column by Marianne LeVine, a national political reporter for the Post, put it: “Trump calls political enemies ‘vermin,’ echoing dictators Hitler, Mussolini.”

Here is what Trump actually said: “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. … They’ll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American dream.”

Three points:

First, Trump did not label his “political enemies” “vermin.” He used that word only to describe communists, Marxists, fascists, and radical left thugs. So should any decent person.

Second, he didn’t label them “vermin.” He said they “live like vermin” because “they’ll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American dream.” Again, correct.

Third, Hitler used the word “vermin” to describe Jews—not “political enemies”—in order to justify their extermination. People know that. Therefore, the association of Trump with Hitler because of the use of “vermin” is meant to imply that, like Hitler, Trump seeks to exterminate his “political enemies.”

These lies about Trump explain why an assassination attempt was inevitable.

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