How Trump followed Hitler’s playbook: A civil liberties lawyer’s analysis

The former US president Donald Trump has often been compared to Adolf Hitler, the Nazi dictator who rose to power in Germany in the early 1930s and unleashed a reign of terror and genocide. But how valid is this comparison? And what can we learn from it?

Burt Neuborne, a prominent civil liberties lawyer and professor at New York University, has written a book titled “When at Times the Mob Is Swayed: A Citizen’s Guide to Defending Our Republic”, in which he outlines 20 ways in which Trump’s rhetoric and policies mirror those of Hitler.

Neuborne’s book is based on his analysis of Hitler’s speeches and writings, as well as his observation of Trump’s campaign and presidency. He argues that Trump is consciously following Hitler’s extremist propaganda and policy template from the early 1930s, when the Nazis took power in Germany and began to erode its democratic institutions.

According to Neuborne, some of the key similarities between Trump and Hitler are:

- Both leaders found direct communication channels to their base. For Hitler, this was through his speeches and propaganda, while for Trump, it has been through his use of social media platforms like Twitter.
— Both leaders used divisive rhetoric to polarize their respective societies. Hitler used…