With the news that Trump freed the hostages and brokered an Israel/Hamas ceasefire, I thought it would be a good time to check in on the folks who compared the president to Hitler over the last few years, for reasons that I hope are obvious to you.
Remember? ⤵️
You may think the “Trump is literally Hitler” phrase is just a silly joke.
But for years, media outlets and left-wing voices on the internet have insisted that, no, really, Trump is just like Hitler.
Few have done so with as much gusto as @CNN.
Back in 2016, @CNN alleged that Trump rallies were just like Hitler rallies because…Trump had attendees raise their right hands.
That’s what inspired this headline.
Someone coming on @CNN to compare Trump to Hitler as the host nods along was a regular feature of 2019. (H/t @RealSaavedra)
I know @amanpour has walked her original Trump-Hitler comparison back, but I think @SteveKrak’s criticism here is still entirely right: a team of @CNN writers and editors decided this comp was worth airing.
I mean, seriously. Do you remember how regular of an occurrence it has been for outlets like @CNN to bring random people onto their shows and podcasts to declare that Trump is Hitler incarnate, as the hosts nod along? (H/t @greg_price11, who surely remembers)
The comment was met with no pushback from @andersoncooper. @AC360 even tweeted the quote out themselves.
There were plenty of other outlets who have done this, too.
I mean, @newrepublic published a cover image of Trump superimposed over a famous picture of Hitler and doubled down on the comparison when they were criticized for doing so.
But plenty of more mainstream outlets have tried to compare Trump to Hitler.
In 2023, @washingtonpost ran a piece titled “How Trump’s rhetoric compares with Hitler’s.”
They had multiple pieces on the same subject.
Remember how Trump’s remarks about illegal immigrants were ripped from the pages of Mein Kampf?
Remember the media hype for late night hosts going after “Trump for stanning Hitler”?
@nytimes, if you won’t stop making late night a news story, please drop the youth buzzwords.
It wasn’t just Hitler, @TheAtlantic and @anneapplebaum assure us.
Trump was sounding like Stalin and Mussolini, too.
Even Trump saying he wasn’t quoting Hitler made @AP mad.
Not sure what the good outcome here would have been, but Trump’s defense was “part of a broader pattern.”
This framing from @NBCNews really makes the editorial posture of the outlet on the “is Donald Trump literally Hitler?” question quite clear.
And of course chief @NBCNews voice @JoeNBC repeatedly compared Trump to Hitler…before going to visit Trump, which is a weird thing to do after calling someone Hitler.
The podcast from @NPR is the more intellectually dishonest but I couldn’t resist including the headline “#Memeoftheweek: comparing Donald Trump to Hitler.”
What could be more 2016?
Few outlets have repeated the Trump-is-Hitler trope as frequently as @MSNBC. Here’s just a couple, also including their leading voices like @Lawrence, @ZeeshanAleem and Frank Figluizzi (h/t @AnnCoulter) with perhaps the most bizarre version.
This is a real piece from @guardian
Democratic electeds have made a habit of comparing Trump to Hitler.
@RepJasmine doubled down on the idea after an off-the-cuff comment.
Of course, @NBCNews quoted both @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris comparing Trump and Hitler.
They did the same for @RepRobertGarcia, @RepHankJohnson, and others.
And unsurprisingly the online loonies have done this too. I’m running out of space but I always go to @TheRickWilson for his humor.
@DeanObeidallah, too.
The Trump-is-Hitler claim is one that @RachelBitecofer trots out often, so here’s just a couple.
I think @BruceBartlett wrote a book on Trump being Hitler?
I just don’t know that Hitler would have freed Israeli hostages held by Islamic terrorists?
Idk man.
Anyway, I’m sure there are more.
I just figured the news about Trump securing the release of Hamas’s hostages seemed very… not-Hitler.
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A newly declassified CIA report on Joe Biden & Ukraine blows the doors off claims from the legacy press, in the lead up to the 2020 election and beyond, that Trump was pushing a “conspiracy theory” about Biden’s corruption.
Remember how the press buried Burisma? ⤵️
First, the facts. The report unearths how Biden blocked the release of intel from Ukrainian sources validating allegations of bribery tied to Biden’s diplomatic push to oust a prosecutor there in 2015, tied to his son Hunter’s work with the gas company Burisma.
You may remember this story because Biden’s having helped oust a prosecutor in a foreign country to allegedly protect his family’s corruption came up in the 2020 election.
To hear @ABC tell it, that was a “debunked Ukraine conspiracy theory.”
The media are melting down about former FBI director Jim Comey’s indictment, calling it Trump’s “retribution.”
But if prosecuting a political rival is such an outrage, why’d they cheer along when Biden went after Trump, Bannon & Navarro?
Some side-by-sides ⤵️
I want you to help me spot the difference in tone.
With Comey, @CNN put five — five! — reporters on the byline to declare the indictment was an “escalation” in “Trump’s effort to prosecute his political enemies.”
Where was that when Biden’s DOJ indicted Bannon? “A victory”
And @CNN wasn’t any better on Peter Navarro, another Trump aide indicted under Biden.
Rather than an “effort to prosecute…political enemies,” CNN quoted the prosecutor to tell the story.
Why is the claim of the government the framing of the piece under Biden? I have a guess.
The outrage over Kimmel’s canning is incredibly stupid, but it’s also enormously rich coming from the same media outlets who have cheered the government actually censoring people, particularly during COVID.
Let me know if you can spot the difference in tone? ⤵️
This @CNN headline made me think this story needed a thread.
Kimmel’s suspension is “straight from a European strongman’s playbook,” per @CNN’s @brianstelter.
When Biden cracked down on free speech during Covid, CNN hyped up the effort.
Few promoted the government’s actual attack on free speech more aggressively than the same @brianstelter now calling a comedian’s shelving evidence of autocracy, or something.
I know there’s a lot going on but we just had a media conspiracy implode that I think captures something important about the corporate press.
Did you hear about how Trump was allegedly going after John Bolton as retribution for his criticism?
Well…follow along ⤵️
We saw a week straight of media suggestions that Trump was abusing the powers of the state to deal out “retribution” to John Bolton following the news that the FBI (“Trump’s DOJ!” headlines rang out) raided his house.
We were in “unsettling” times, to hear @nytimes tell it.
The *Editorial Board* at @nytimes put out an even more dramatic statement, asking who Trump’s next payback victim after Bolton would be.
A single poll has bootstrapped a media narrative that DC residents are outraged by Trump’s takeover.
I poked around the cross tabs of the poll — of 600 or so of DC’s more comfortable residents — and I think it’s pretty suspect.
How come? Follow along: ⤵️
Let’s start with the poll. The @washingtonpost talked to 604 people, of whom 90% — 90%! — self-described as living in “very good” or “good” neighborhoods.
So, fine. 80% of people who like where they live in DC are upset.
But even beyond that, it’s worth asking whether this poll really captures DC’s opinion.
In the poll, only 31% describe crime as a “serious” or “very serious” problem in DC.
When @washingtonpost asked this same question in May, *50%* said it was a serious problem.
I feel like I’m losing my mind about the Biden autopen pardons.
The former president said he made every decision. His staff says that he didn’t actually make the final call on thousands of them.
We’re supposed to treat this as normal?
I try to unpack. ⤵️
This got new life from a Biden interview w/ @nytimes.
NYT leads by repeating Biden’s claim that he made the calls…burying the admissions that 1) he really didn’t & 2) where he allegedly did, the aids sending details to the autopen weren’t in the room when the call was made…
…instead, they relied on what senior staff had allegedly heard, which was then passed along.
The piece ends with the revelation that Biden’s then-chief of staff gave the final sign off.
Given what the former admin has lied about, why should we trust this reporting of events?