The U.S. conservative movement's authoritarian plans

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It's preemptive strike time: designate the Southern Baptist Convention, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Mormon Church as terrorist organizations.

It's preemptive strike time: designate the Southern Baptist Convention, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Mormon Church as terrorist organizations.

Except that the organization that's relevant is the Heritage Foundation.

At least one of those groups is likely connected to Heritage.

Former President Donald Trump vowed this weekend to "root out" his political opponents, who he said "live like vermin" as he warned supporters that America's greatest threats come "from within" -- extreme rhetoric that echoes the words of fascist dictators like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, experts and Trump's critics said.

A Trump campaign spokesman dismissed the backlash to his speech, at a Veterans Day rally in New Hampshire, but some historians said the parallels were alarming.

"To call your opponent 'vermin,' to dehumanize them, is to not only open the door but to walk through the door toward the most ghastly kinds of crimes," writer and historian Jon Meacham said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

Speaking to a packed crowd inside Stevens High School auditorium in Claremont, New Hampshire, on Saturday, Trump, who is seeking a second term in the White House, said: "We will put America first and today, especially in honor of our great veterans on Veterans Day, we pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country."

The comments received immediate pushback, both from critics who have long challenged Trump's habit of attacking others with hyperbolic insults and from historians who said his latest remarks had an unsettling resemblance to those of infamous authoritarians.

"Please tell us if this reminds you of any earlier historical figure," NBC's presidential historian Michael Beschloss wrote on X.

The comments received immediate pushback, both from critics who have long challenged Trump's habit of attacking others with hyperbolic insults and from historians who said his latest remarks had an unsettling resemblance to those of infamous authoritarians.

"Please tell us if this reminds you of any earlier historical figure," NBC's presidential historian Michael Beschloss wrote on X.

"It doesn't echo 'Mein Kampf.' This is textbook 'Mein Kampf,'" Yale University professor Jason Stanley, author of "How Fascism Works," said about Trump's comments on MSNBC. Stanley was referring to a book published by Hitler before his rise to power.

"Trump's comments are remarkably evocative particularly of Hitler's rants against Marxists and socialists -- Hitler also decried pro-democratic forces as Marxist," Stanley told ABC News.

"In another regard, this is worse than Nazi propaganda," he said. "Bear in mind that there was actually a communist anti-democratic threat in Europe in the 1920s and '30s, and there is none in America today."

In a statement, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung rejected the comparisons to Hitler and Mussolini.

"Those who try to make that ridiculous assertion are clearly snowflakes grasping for anything because they are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome and their sad, miserable existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House," Cheung said.

At the Veterans Day rally, while talking about legal challenges he's facing, Trump also floated the possibility of retribution against his political enemies if he returns to the White House, though he said, "I don't want to do that."

Yes...that sort of comment is straight from Hitler's speeches...WTF is wrong with the people who vote for Trump and his buddies?? <--that is a rhetorical question. I know they are extreme fascists.

And there are no non-violent ways to deprogram these people.

That is so worrying...

I've seen american polls that show Trump winning in 2025 is becoming likelier and likelier. of course, project 2025 is a very complex multi-step plan with a million places where it could go wrong, but it still makes me worry. My very existence would be illegal under their ideal government.

Are you some kind of criminal or something?