
This Saturday I will be at Madison Square Garden in New York for the climax of Donald Trump’s election campaign. It will be one hell of a spectacle, designed to show Trump returning in triumph like a conquering emperor to the city that spurned him. The hall will be filled with 20,000 Maga supporters decked in red, white and blue, roaring “USA! USA! USA!” The message will be: Trump is unstoppable. Those who are against him should get out of the way.
I have been to scores of Trump rallies. This one feels significant because of the memories and fears it evokes. In 1939, on the eve of war in Europe, 20,000 American Nazis — members of the German American Bund — gathered at the same spot in serried ranks to hail Hitler in front of huge US flags and a gigantic portrait of George Washington. On MSNBC, James Carville, the veteran Democratic spinner, accused Trump of mimicking that rally. “See what happened there,” he urged viewers. “They are telling you exactly what they’re going to do: ‘We’re going to institute a fascist regime’.”