This week Trump spoke of blood. Again. It’s not his first time.
This latest reference was at a campaign rally in Wisconsin talking about plans for “mass deportation” of border crossers. Alluding to reports of gang activity in a Denver apartment building he claimed:
“And you know, getting them out will be a bloody story.”
Blood has long been a tough-guy theme for Trump, intricately tied to his rhetoric about threats to racial purity. At a rally in Durham, NH, he declared,
“They let—I think the real number is 15, 16 million people into our country. When they do that, we got a lot of work to do. They’re poisoning the blood of our country.”
Here lies a disturbing parallel. Wittingly or not, Trump echoed the words of Adolf Hitler.
“All great cultures of the past perished only because the originally creative race died out from blood poisoning.”—Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf
Although Trump claims he has never read Mein Kampf, he has repeatedly invoked the notion of poisoned blood at his rallies. His ally, JD Vance, attempted to spin the latest rhetoric, suggesting Trump was referring to migrant gangs pushing fentanyl. That’s a stretch. Trump’s focus was clear: he was talking about millions of non-white individuals from South America, Africa, and Asia who upon being let in, are “poisoning” the nation's blood.
The stealthy rise of authoritarianism poses an ever-growing threat to American democracy. Whether Trump admits to knowing anything about Project 2025 or not, coordinated efforts represent a significant push to centralize power and dismantle fragile democratic institutions. Both ancient and modern political philosophies have long warned of the dangers of tyranny.
In the 5th century BCE, Socrates used a dialectic method to challenge and clarify beliefs to arrive at deeper understandings and the truth. His student Plato warned against demagogues who exploit free speech to gain control. Subsequently, Plato’s student, Aristotle, argued that inequality breeds instability—ideas that remain relevant today.
In the 17th century, Thomas Hobbes proposed a social contract whereby the masses willingly surrender freedoms in exchange for the security provided by a powerful sovereign. Hobbes believed humanity would exist in a chaotic "state of nature," where life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Today, Project 2025 wraps itself in a similar social contract, promising to deliver Americans from a chaotic existence by dictating the terms of acceptable behavior.
“Our Constitution grants each of us the liberty to do NOT what we want, but what we ought.”— Project 2025, “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” Foreword by Kevin D. Roberts, PhD, President, Heritage Foundation
Pulitzer Prize-winning Anne Applebaum, author of Autocracy, Inc., notes that democracy fades not through sudden collapse or bloody coups, but through incremental steps where democratic norms are chipped away. Ian Bassin, co-founder of Protect Democracy, speaks of “salami tactics" slicing away at freedoms bit by bit.
Pick your metaphor: baby steps or salami slices—it doesn’t matter. This country is tilting toward autocracy. At this late stage in the campaign season, we find ourselves in a shocking reality where nearly half of the country seems comfortable trading individual rights and freedoms for an imagined myth of security. That is precisely what autocrats sell: security. Trump and Project 2025 represent a significant push to centralize power and dismantle fragile democratic institutions, all under the guise of protecting rights and freedoms, when in fact, they are taking them away.
Past Parallels
In the early 1930s, Hitler was selling security in the guise of Freiheit und brot. Freedom and bread. But it, too, was a twisted form of freedom. Hitler used this slogan as a powerful propaganda tool to gain popular support and consolidate nationalistic power.
Brot tapped into the economic hardship that many Germans were experiencing in the aftermath of World War I and the Great Depression.
Freiheit tapped into Völkisch nationalism emphasizing pure German identity free of ethnic taint.
One month after being appointed Chancellor in 1933, Hitler exploited the Reichstag fire. He blamed the fire on political undesirables and suspended civil liberties in exchange for protecting the nation. The fix was in. Hitler had successfully identified the “enemy.” Germans acquiesced.
Austrian philosopher Robert Musil wrote at the time:
“Freedom of the press, of expression of any kind…and all the liberal fundamental rights have now been set aside…and all the things that have been abolished are no longer of great concern to the people.”
In March 1933, Hitler was granted the ability to enact laws without parliamentary consent effectively giving him dictatorial powers. He declared himself Führer. No battle. No military coup. Just peace and quiet, broken only by violence rained down upon Jews and other vulnerable minorities.
Trump has told us of his ambitions to be dictator for a day. The Heritage Foundation was late to the game in 2017. They started developing their Project 2025 plan more than two years ago. If Trump wins, they will dismantle democratic institutions and take over all the levers of power in Washington. Dictatorial levers. On day one. All in the name of their twisted version of freedom.
The Orbán Connection
Victor Orbán, living exemplar of authoritarianism, has become a darling of CPAC. In May 2023 he delivered the keynote address claiming his suppression of LGBTQ+ rights, academic freedom, and the media to be a model for the world. CPAC attendees marveled.
This year in March, Kevin Roberts welcomed Orbán to a private meeting at the Heritage Foundation, which was not open to the press or the public. Vivek Ramaswamy introduced the program titled "The Future of Relations between the United States and Hungary.”
A few months later in July, Orbán met one of his biggest admirers in Bedminster New Jersey. Donald Trump. During the Presidential Debate on Tuesday this week, Trump proudly enthused that Orbán likes him.
Do any of us really want to find out what the future of relations between the United States and Hungary under Donald Trump would be?
The Looming Threat
The threat of authoritarianism is palpable as we near the November election. If it takes hold, it will be done quietly though a free and fair election of Donald Trump. Then a brigade of Republican Quislings will escort him into office. Democracy will be eroded by dismantling institutions, spreading falsehoods, concentrating power, suppressing dissent, subjugating women, and marginalizing vulnerable communities. These moves are not secret. They’ve been uttered by Donald Trump. They’ve been written up in the presidential transition plan of Project 2025. They are built on a white Christian nationalist ethic. We have been warned. We have an election to win in less than two months. To save free elections. Free speech. Free press. Freedom of religion. And freedom from religion.
Will the country choose democracy or autocracy? Will Hitler’s Chief Propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, have the last laugh?
“The big joke on democracy is that it gives its mortal enemies the tools of its own destruction.”
So what will it be? A democracy girded by the rule of law? Or an autocracy unhinged by a convicted felon seeking lawless revenge?
As we skim along with our favorite democratic journalists - we don’t get near the deeper information that you give to us. Thank you.
Harry, your presentation last night was informative and unfortunately alarming because the salami has been sliced and ready to be served. Electing Kamala and then educating the masses is our only salvation I feel at this point in time. ( is there enough gin & tonic in the world?)
Thank you for leading the way.