Democrats, liberals, and media figures repeatedly compared President Trump to fascists, Nazis, and Adolph Hitler this past week, much of which was centered on Trump’s reignited hard-line rhetoric on immigration.
However, some of the comparisons mistakenly conflated his comments on MS-13 gang members as his stance on all asylum-seekers.
At a campaign stop in Iowa on Thursday, Democratic presidential candidate and former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke compared Trump’s rhetoric on immigration to Nazi Germany. “When the president of the United States has called Mexican immigrants ‘rapists’ and ‘criminals.’ He then went on to call asylum seekers ‘animals’ and an ‘infestation,’” O’Rourke said.
“Now we would not be surprised if in the Third Reich other human beings were described as an infestation, as a cockroach or a pest that you would want to kill. But to do that in 2017 or ‘18 in the United States of America, doesn’t make sense,” O’Rourke added.
MSNBC host Chris Hayes said in a tweet Thursday that O’Rourke’s characterization of Trump’s rhetoric as Nazi language is “100% correct.”
He noted that talking about immigrants as an “infestation” and “animals” is Nazi language, and in that he is 100% correct. The recklessness lies with the president using those vile, dehumanizing terms, not with the person pointing that out. https://t.co/PvkJeYQto3
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) April 4, 2019
Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, who is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, expanded on O’Rourke’s comparison.
“What the president is trying to do is to dehumanize, to otherize these immigrants. And that’s very similar, whether it’s to what Congressman O’Rourke was talking about or other regimes that try and dehumanize people,” Castro said on MSNBC.
The comparisons flooded in after a tweet Friday said that Trump called people asking for asylum “animals,” attaching a video in which Trump said “these are not people. These are animals.”
The tweet, however, misrepresented the context of the video. The clip showed Trump speaking at a White House roundtable on sanctuary cities in May 2018, and he appeared to be referencing MS-13 gang members and illegal immigrants, not all asylum-seekers or immigrants.
Nevertheless, Democrats and media figures cited the tweet and video when comparing Trump to Nazis and fascists.
“Hitler couldn’t have said it better,” Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., said in a tweet Saturday.
Hitler couldn’t have said it better. https://t.co/BXEfnv4C88
— Rep. Jared Huffman (@JaredHuffman) April 6, 2019
“Nazi garbage,” filmmaker Judd Apatow commented Friday when retweeting the video. Chris Hayes retweeted Apatow.
Nazi garbage https://t.co/hBHExJTDC3
— Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) April 6, 2019
“Stop the pearl clutching. @BetoORourke is right. This is how fascists talk,” Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress and former staffer in President Barack Obama’s administration, said Friday.
Stop the pearl clutching. @BetoORourke is right. This is how fascists talk. https://t.co/796TxGYNkV
— Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) April 6, 2019
“He’s a fascist,” tweeted Shane Bauer, a senior writer at Mother Jones.
He’s a fascist https://t.co/K7mSUhUph3
— Shane Bauer (@shane_bauer) April 6, 2019
“This is the language used by Nazis against Jews (‘vermin’), Hutus against Tutsis (‘cockroaches’) and American slaveowners against slaves (‘animals’). Once you’ve labeled people as animals, violence, murder and genocide will follow,” said James Martin SJ, a Jesuit priest and an editor at America Magazine, a Jesuit publication.
This is the language used by Nazis against Jews (“vermin”), Hutus against Tutsis (“cockroaches”) and American slaveowners against slaves (“animals”). Once you’ve labeled people as animals, violence, murder and genocide will follow. Every person, every migrant, is a child of God. https://t.co/fdmEOSfvkI
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) April 6, 2019
Several other members of Congress also criticized Trump for the “animal” comment in the viral tweet, though they did not go so far as comparing him to Nazis.
“My father, who was welcomed by this country after surviving the Holocaust, is not an animal,” Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Penn., tweeted Saturday.
My father, who was welcomed by this country after surviving the Holocaust, is not an animal. The people seeking refuge and asylum in America like he did are not animals. Smart and effective border security does not involve denigrating our fellow humans. Full stop. https://t.co/rquvYIgyyx
— Chrissy Houlahan (@RepHoulahan) April 6, 2019
Commentators have compared Trump to Hitler in the past.
MSNBC host Nicole Wallace compared Trump to Hitler in an October segment after Trump called himself a nationalist. “I watch enough History Channel to know that they cheered at Hitler, too,” Wallace said, and suggested that Trump meant “white nationalism.”
In March, CNN analyst and former Obama administration staffer Samantha Vinograd compared Trump’s speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference to Hitler. “Preserving our heritage, reclaiming our heritage, that sounds a lot like a certain leader that killed members of my family and about 6 million other Jews in the 1940s,” Vinograd said.
The Trump administration has warned that many of those seeking asylum make fraudulent claims and abuse the system. Trump recently threatened to close the U.S.-Mexico border if Democrats do not agree to immigration reforms.
“We need to get rid of chain migration. We need to get rid of catch and release. And visa lottery. We have to do something about asylum. And to be honest with you, have to get rid of judges,” Trump told reporters Tuesday.
When visiting the southern border in California on Friday, Trump said that the U.S. can’t take any more asylum seekers or illegal immigrants.
“Our country is full. Our area is full. The sector is full,” Trump said at a meeting with military officers and local officials.
