A Prescription for Trump’s Dictatorship: Lessons from 1933

Authoritarianism is Just Around the Corner

“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

George Santayana

Adolf Hitler planned to be a dictator. His writings, speeches, and recorded conversations with his closest confidants all confirm this, however, he was not expecting the way President Paul Von Hindenburg, urged on by former Chancellor Franz Von Papen appointed him as Chancellor. He did not have an extended transition to pick his cabinet members, and he was Chancellor with a non-Nazi majority in the cabinet. His political power, unlike President Trump when he takes office was great, but limited.

Hindenburg, supported by powerful German conservatives and the Army had chosen him. The conservatives hoped to neutralize Hitler and eventually replace him by letting him fail, von Papen told a worried conservative friend, “Within two months, we will have pushed Hitler so far into a corner that he’ll squeak.” Seldom has a political leader made such a tragic mistake.

Of the thirteen members, only the Ministry of the Interior, which was occupied by Wilhelm Frick, and the Reich Chancellery itself, occupied by Hitler were Nazis. Hermann Goring was appointed Reich Minister Without Portfolio and Acting Prussian Minister of the Interior, which gave him direct control over the police in the greater part of Germany. All the other members, including Von Papen were German conservatives. But Hitler was far more shrewd than Von Papen and rapidly outmaneuvered him.

Donald Trump has promised to be a dictator on day one, and he will not have to resort to what Hitler had to do in order to make it happen. During his first term and the interregnum following his defeat by Joe Biden in 2020, he gained near total control of the Republican, and the Supreme Court majority. That majority ruled in the 6 January, 2021 case, that Presidents are immune from prosecution from actions that can be considered part of their official duties. The ruling brought chaos to the cases against him, and although Special Prosecutor Jack Smith had gotten a second indictment which was virtually airtight, Trump won election, and Smith, obeying a Justice Department policy that said President should not be prosecuted while in office (though nowhere in the Constitution or law) dropped his case. Theoretically the charges can be brought again once Trump leaves office, but the chances of that are very unlikely.

Hitler had to resort to a rigged election shorty after taking power to gain a majority in the Reichstag, while Trump holds a solid majority in the U.S. Senate, and a bare majority in the House of Representatives, despite winning a tiny majority of the popular vote. In many of the German States, non-Nazi majorities controlled the state legislatures, and police organizations. The conservative parties rapidly fell in line, my like the supposed mainline Republicans between 2017 and 2020, while the Socialists and Labor Unions tried to adopt a conciliatory approach to no avail. In under six months all opposition parties were outlawed, with all but the Socialists dissolving themselves to appease Hitler.

The Trump controlled Republican Party controls over half of our state houses, and while the Democratic Party remains, at the national level it is leaderless, and not a threat to Trump’s goals, apart from internal divisions in the GOP between the MAGA extremists and few slightly less extreme GOP Senators and fewer House members, a there is little to stop Trump. Likewise, I expect many Democratic senators and representatives to try to preserve their positions by cooperating with Trump.

With nearly complete control of the GOP, an allied Supreme Court majority, a radical cabinet backed by the unlimited money of Elon Musk and other Trump supporting GOP oligarchs, Trump will be able to do his worst, especially with a corporate media that is already doing what it can to avoid his ire by rolling over and normalizing his actions.

I expect that within three to six months of taking office that Trump’s team will orchestrate a crisis that will allow him to consolidate his power under the guise of a national emergency. Failing that, events outside of his control could bring the same result, just as the Reichstag Fire allowed Hitler to request President Hindenburg to allow him to rule by fiat, under Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution without Reichstag approval for his actions. This allowed Hermann Goring to exercise his control of the Prussian police to act against any real, or perceived opponents. The National Emergencies Act, in its current form, allows the president to declare emergencies with nothing more than a signature on an executive order, and presidents can renew those emergencies every year ad infinitum.

Trump already has said that he plans on doing that when he takes power regarding the arrest, internment, and deportation of immigrants, including those here legally, like the Haitians in Springfield, Ohio. But according to the Brennan Center, there are 123 statutory authorities that become available to the president when he declares a national emergency. However, in addition to sensible measures, they include actions similar to any authoritarian regime, including giving the president the power to take over domestic communications and seize Americans’ bank accounts, as well as to take military action against any foreign country without congressional approval, something Trump has recently threatened to do against Mexico.

Hitler did not achieve undisputed power until after the Night of the Long Knives where he did away with his internal Nazi Party opponents, and many conservatives, including two Reichswehr Generals. The remaining conservatives rapidly fell into line, as did the Army since Hitler eliminated the senior leadership of the SA Brownshirts who wanted to replace the Army, using his SS to do the job with the logistical support of the Army. For the Army it was a deal with the devil, for upon the death of President Hindenburg, Hitler merged the offices of President and Chancellor and Von Blomberg had the Army swear a personal oath of loyalty to Hitler, rather than the constitution, an oath that all civil servants also swore.

I don’t know exactly what the future under Trump portends, but from the history of authoritarian regimes, I expect that the result will be what is a dictatorship covered with a veneer of democracy as is the case in Russia, Belarus, Hungary, and Turkey.

Thus, with under 60 days until Trump takes power with all the instruments of government power at his disposal, including the Supreme Court, with an existing blueprint (Project 2025 ) to remake our government into a dictatorship, we have to remember the to heed the warning of Russian dissident Gary Kasparov:

“dictators & would be autocrats do not ask “Why?” when it comes to using power for their advantage. They ask “why not?”

Until next time, regardless of the future, do not lose hope and always resist.