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Trump isn’t Hitler, but the parallels are clear
Slidell, La.: Voicer John Gelormino disparages the comparisons between Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler but fails to provide any details to support his assertion. Let’s take a serious look at the similarities.
Hitler’s first attempt at assuming power was his violent, failed Beer Hall Putsch coup d’etat. Trump’s violent Jan. 6, 2021 attempted coup to retain power also failed. Hitler’s political agenda during his rise promoted demonization of minorities. He used fear, intimidation and threats of violence to garner support and intimidate the opposition. Rallies and book-banning were a cause célèbre for Hitler and his supporters, as was their ideological opposition to democracy and their extreme enmity toward anyone who disagreed. Sound like a page from Trump’s MAGA playbook?
While antisemitism and hateful authoritarianism was germinating and growing during the early years of Hitler’s rule, the genocidal horror began several years after Hitler took control. The first victims were the poor souls from mental institutions starting in 1939, with children gassed along with adults. While children being locked in cages at the Mexican border do not correlate to the barbarity of Nazi atrocities, it does show a small progression by Trump to ascertain what level of extreme conduct his administration could conduct. The Holocaust began in earnest several years after Hitler assumed power, with the Einsatzgruppen death squads conducting their extermination campaigns beginning in Poland.
The atrocities did not begin on the first day of Hitler’s ascent. They progressed and grew over the course of several years. We can’t afford another four years of a Trump regime to see what other plays he can pull from the Nazi game plan. Gerard Kay
Public over personal
Hammonton, N.J.: Voicer Gilbert M. Lane is perplexed by how many people support the Make America Great Again agenda. Perhaps it’s because they want to make America better. While Trump is not a likable person and has many character flaws, electing a president is not a popularity contest like homecoming king and queen. Regardless of the horrible character of Trump, to compare the economy and border control in his four years to President Biden’s time in office makes a strong case to elect Trump. Great leaders are not necessarily likable people. I hope this brings some clarity to Lane’s dilemma. William Cook
Cash extraction
Ashburn, Va.: Trump has always preferred to live off of someone else’s money. He’s bragged about using clever schemes to avoid paying taxes, which shifts the tax burden to the rest of us. When he borrows money through bank loans, he routinely and illegally overvalues his properties to get lower loan rates. When his grandiose schemes fail, he declares bankruptcy, leaving his contractors and workers with near-worthless IOUs. His chicanery discovered, he has devised yet another scheme to pay off his lawyers: He uses our Super PAC donations. Although he’s insisted that he isn’t using Republican National Committee fundraising to pay his legal bills, in 2023 he spent more than $54 million of donors’ money on his personal legal bills. That money came from Super PACs, which are technically barred from coordinating with Trump. Once again, Trump is gaming the system at our expense. Mike Barrett
Hollow assets
Brooklyn: During Trump’s deposition, he said that he had $400 million in liquid assets. Now that he has to put up $454 million in order to appeal the verdict Attorney General Tish James won against the Trump Organization, he can’t get any bond company to put up the bond. It looks like Trump lied again! His properties don’t seem to be too liquid or desirable to the bonding companies! Harvey Kaplan
Family funds
Massapequa Park, L.I.: I wonder why Trump doesn’t get the money from his daughter and son-in-law. Just wondering! Frank Mullahey
Heed his words
Lackawaxen, Pa.: Voicer James Hyland accuses Sen. Chuck Schumer of “backstabbing” Benjamin Netanyahu over the latter’s continuing his terrorist rampage in Palestine. The senator is not in the executive branch, so he has little power over foreign policy. But Schumer’s is prudent advice: Netanyahu got away with murder and should now let it be. There are 100 times as many Muslims as Jews in the world, many lacking the genetic “sympathies” of those from the Levant. Unless the Zionists are suicidal or firm believers in the Old Testament fairy tales (David and Goliath), they should quit while ahead. John A. MacKinnon
Out of line
Bronx: I was reading where the former president was saying that if you are Jewish, you should vote Republican. If you do not vote Republican, you don’t believe in Israel and you are not proud to be Jewish. How dare he! I am Jewish and support Israel but not Netanyahu, and call what happened on Oct. 7 a massacre. I do not need someone who does not have American values to tell me how to vote. Martin Sandok
Mass homicide
Manhattan: Voicer Susan Addelston asks for assistance in understanding why Israel (described by her as “victim”) should be asked to stop killing Palestinians. Israel had killed approximately the same number of Palestinian civilians between 1948 and Oct. 6, 2023, as it has since. Israeli Jewish casualties were comparatively minimal. Ethically, no one should become a victim when tending to their own affairs. A military strategy of killing 100 people in the hope that five or 10 may be combatants is not one that analytics can defend (as is attempted when referring to an enemy embedded in a civilian population). That it is wrong is a matter of immediate perception, not subject to an endless concatenation of synonyms: wrong because evil; evil because wicked; ad infinitum. Hamas’ attack, much like our 9/11, was a crime that, for political reasons, was propagandized into an act of war. Michele P. Brown
Quid pro quo
Long Branch, N.J.: Re “Eric met convicted donor” (March 20): Why would a Chinese billionaire donate funds to candidates via a “straw donor scheme” unless he was expecting something in return? Also, does Mayor Adams really expect anyone to believe he had no prior knowledge? Lenzy Kelley
Soaring utilities
Bronx: Has anyone checked their home heating bill lately? I’m a homeowner and paid Con Edison $300 to bring me $97 worth of gas! They charged me $120 to bring me $100 of electricity. When I called Con Edison to complain, they said the delivery fee has been approved by the state commission. Am I the only one outraged by this? When they closed Indian Point, my electric bill doubled. Now the city wants to go electric, so my gas bill tripled? Time to abandon Titanic city! It has struck the Democratic iceberg! Abandon ship! Dan Correa
Tourney turn-off
Saddle Brook, N.J.: The Daily News always had a lot of information about the NCAA tournament and the brackets. Now nothing. At least the N.Y. Post still had 20 pages on it on Monday. Bill Homisak
Get on it
Whitestone: Your sports section has been getting quite a bit of criticism lately! You think you would try and step it up and do the right thing by printing the NCAA women’s basketball brackets! Women’s basketball is big news these days, especially college. People are interested! Maybe you don’t have enough room with all those hideously large, zoomed-in photos throughout your paper! Step it up, guys! Patricia W. McGlinchey
Give it back
Manhattan: I was deeply saddened and shocked when I got news that the tabernacle in St. Augustine Catholic Church in Brooklyn was stolen and some statues were vandalized. What a terrible, blasphemous act of sacrilege. I was in that church once and I was astounded by its beauty. Please, oh please, if anyone has that tabernacle or knows of its whereabouts, notify the authorities at once and turn it in at once. You would do us all a favor. Kevin T. Casey
Chaotic commute
Manhattan: I am so happy that 150 subway stations are accessible, whatever that means. Now, if I could get to that accessible station, with the constant signal problems the entire system is always experiencing, that would be a plus. For the past 50 years, the MTA has continued to do anything and everything to prevent the repair of this medieval, dilapidated system of signals. Gotta keep that Ponzi scheme going, right Janno Lieber? Thomas Bower
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