Following last month's assassination attempt, Donald Trump briefly postured as a changed man who would strike a new tone and seek to unify the country. Of course that was a lie. At a recent rally in Minnesota, Trump told a crowd of cheering followers, "I want to be nice. They all say, ‘I think he’s changed. I think he’s changed since two weeks ago. Something affected him. No, I haven’t changed. Maybe I’ve gotten worse. Because I get angry at the incompetence that I witness every single day."
In various ways, Trump continues to channel the dark history of Adolf Hitler's rise. This is not simply an interpretation of his metaphors or vague dog-whistle statements. Trump has literally said he wants to purify the blood of the nation by eliminating "vermin," a term he has applied on several occasions to nonwhite immigrants. In a throwback to early 20th-century eugenics and "race science," Trump has expressed pride in his "good German genes" and racial background. Trump and his allies have floated plans for a system of concentration camps aimed at collecting and deporting migrants, refugees and undocumented immigrants. Hitler proposed strikingly similar plans before he enacted eliminationist and genocidal policies aimed at achieving them.
