Trump’s path may be superficially similar, but it reflects not his personal vision, but an ideological view of reality and humanity that long predates him, and that has been developing and strengthening since before he was born, and has roots deep in our history. Trumpism will not go away when he goes. His replacements are already being groomed, and they will learn from his mistakes.

Hitler hijacked European fascism. Trump was created and molded by American fascism.

I’ll see your Stalingrad and raise you one 9/11.

I notice that your comparison spans two different eras of national socialism. The first was the intellectual battle to convince the German people to reject democracy and revert to dictatorial rule (mostly intellectual, in the press and in speeches, augmented a bit by tactical thuggery). The second was, after the intellectual solidification of Germany around Hitler, was Germany then turning to the outside world to conquer it and spread the idea of national socialism, primarily by force.

It strikes me that after World War II, the battlefield has evolved into a primarily intellectual one, and that the “Stalingrad milestone” for Trump is still the loss of an intellectual battle. No actual troops were harmed in the filming of this reality TV show.

It’s still a dead serious, that is to say existential, battle. Hitler tried to use physical force to convert the world, but today his heirs are using the force of the internet to fight their battle. And they can be defeated just as decisively–if the prize is “hearts and minds”, it doesn’t matter if the transfer was accomplished without bloodshed, that’s how we define victory these days.

BTW, happy Squeaky Fromme Day!