Trump Chooses the Path of Hitler, Stalin and Genghis Khan

Worse than the attack on Venezuela is the dangerous idea behind it

“You can talk all you want to about international niceties and everything else, but we live in a world—in the real world—that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.”

—Stephen Miller, Deputy White House Chief of Staff

Stephen Miller is Trump’s most important and influential aide because he channels and shares the president’s worldview. We can debate which of the two is feeding ideas to the other, but it cannot be denied that the two are closely in sync and that the thoughts and beliefs they share are driving the U.S. and the world in a profoundly perilous direction.

As disturbing as the illegal U.S. attack on Venezuela, the kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro and his wife, the murder of scores of Venezuelans and the president’s subsequent assertion that the U.S. would “run” the country from now on and steal its oil assets for our own use, there is actually something more worrisome than those developments.

It is the idea that lies behind the Trump Administration’s recent actions in and statements about Venezuela…the same idea that has led them to feel that they can threaten with impunity to seize Greenland or attack Cuba, Colombia or Mexico.

It is the idea that is infused thoughout the recent U.S. National Security Strategy.

It is the idea that Miller framed on a recent CNN appearance that is quoted at the top of this column.

Miller’s cold-blooded assessment that might makes right is the one immutable law of history and is now the guiding concept behind US foreign policy must now be acknowledged as the one core Trump “doctrine” from which all other ideas, foreign and domestic flow.

It is a concept that eschews morality and values, kicks international and domestic law to the curb and invites disaster for the U.S., our neighbors and the world.

It is the same thuggish, blood-soaked approach to the international relations that guided Hitler, Stalin and virtually all of the great monsters of the past.

Rather than being the tough-guy “realist” flex Miller and Trump think it is, it is a view that is immoral and antithetical to all the civilizing forces and lessons learned by global society over the centuries. Indeed, the shared view of the battered planet after the two world wars of the 20th Century was that we must abandon such approaches and stop such leaders for the sake of our collective survival.

That this view guides Trump and Miller and by extension the actions of the world’s most powerful nation at this moment is the most dangerous turn taken in global affairs since the rise of fascism in the 1930s. It is actually even more dangerous given the destructive force of modern weapons technologies combined with the ignorance and defective character of those now in charge here in the US.

Do not underestimate how significant this now publicly declared turn is.

Many will accurately observe that while the U.S. and other nations have espoused higher ideals and a preference for a “rules-based international order” for many years that such notions have been honored more often in the breach than in their observance. America would not exist if we did not brutally steal our continent from its original inhabitants or capture millions against their will and enslave them. We have, even since we sought to establish the post World War II order to which we so often refer, illegally invade or imposed our will on countries with disturbing regularity.

But throughout we have at least acknowledged principles and laws that have had a salutary effect. They have served as a constraint against our worst impulses—whether that meant seeking Congressional or international approval for U.S. actions or as guidelines for the behavior of our military that they were taught and expected to respect and follow. The threat of legal consequences for failing to observe laws or political consequences for appearing to be callous and brutal has certainly resulted in fewer abuses being committed and, from time to time, in the enforcement of consequences for those who have done wrong.

But all that is in our past. The Supreme Court has told this president that has virtually complete immunity for any official act he might undertake as president. He has the virtually unlimited ability to pardon those who implement his orders. He has shown a complete disregard for international law and for the opinion of our friends and allies. Indeed, it is clear he views their even having their own independent thoughts as a nuisance and a burden and that he at the same time emulates the behavior of the dictators and rogues who serially violate laws and even (or perhaps especially) those commit crimes against humanity.

Further, the Congress of the United States, designated by the Constitution as the only branch of government able to decide whether this country should go to war or not, has effectively withdrawn from the role it was intended to play. Republicans by and large blindly support the president whatever he does—even when he does truly outrageous things or acts with utter contempt for them, their advice and their role. And too many Democrats have thought to soft-peddle their opposition to Trump with some even fearing (as has happened again this week) that failing to support him when he breaks the law will make them appear to be “weak.”

Boy, do they have that backward. But, that is a subject for later.

One reason for the Congress’ spinelessness is that it is perceived that the American people will not only accept any behavior from Trump, they have actually made him president twice because he appears to act so “boldly” or “decisively.” They have sent him and other elected officials that they do not mind that he is a serially accused sex offender, a convicted felon, a fraud, twice impeached, overtly corrupt or someone who embraces our enemies at the expense of our allies.

Further, the richest and most powerful Americans, the ones who populate the power structure of this country that sits atop our political system deciding who can run and who will not (based on who they will fund and support), have also sent a loud and clear message that as long as the Trump Administration continues to feather their nests, the president will have carte blanche from them to behave however his twisted character or the twisted character of the twisted characters around him suggests.

The way Trump and Miller and their team are acting is showing the cumulative consequences of all of these developments.

It is ugly. It should be deeply disturbing. And they have already made it clear, it is going to get worse from here.

As I and others have written for over a decade now and as the actions and statements of the President and Miller now prove, Trump is now indisputably and by far the greatest threat faced by the US and the world. He must be stopped.

Further, it is not just that their values are warped nor is it that Trump and Miller have taken care to surround themselves with other officials and military leaders who will not question them. It is also that the people in charge are both ignorant and to a bizarre degree seemingly proud of that ignorance. Their view is that the lessons of history are for pussies, woke stuff taught at Ivy League liberalism factories, and that the rules obviously do not apply to them or else they would not be in the position they are in.

You have to admit, it is easy to see how a guy like Trump may come to that conclusion. He has studiously done everything in life that society teaches us not to do and he has regularly been handsomely rewarded for it.

Unfortunately, he does not realize that every other malignant tyrant who has ever walked the planet went through such a period, thinking the laws of geopolitical physics no longer applied to them. Until that was no longer true. And they were brought down. As Trump and Miller and MAGA ultimately will be.

We must not however, let our awareness of that fact lull us into inaction.

The reality is that most of the great crimes and disasters of history have occurred between the moment maniacs like Trump reach the delusional conclusion that they can do whatever they want and their final reckoning.

Massive, calamitous, damage can be done…indeed will be done…unless we work hard to ensure that reckoning is sooner rather than later. (And not just in foreign or national security policy either—Trump’s hubris will kill many people and make many more suffer as it leads him to believe that his opinion is more important than science, than medicine, or the laws of economics.

The first step toward that reckoning has to be realizing that even the slightest hint of capitulation to Trump or of tolerance of his contempt for norms or his ignorance or his inhumanity or indecency is seen by him as license. That needs to be a message to America’s allies who think, erroneously, that they can “manage” him. It needs to be a message to those he attacks or seeks to bully. It needs to be a message to those in his party who realize the damage he is doing. It needs to be a message to his political opponents.

Trump does not like being opposed. He does not like it when his targets punch back. Indeed, he chooses targets who he believes won’t fight back. (Miller said as much when asked whether the U.S. would use force to seize Greenland.)

The ones who play along with Trump are certain to be betrayed by him. He is loyal to no one except himself (Miller too, will find that out someday).

The ones who will write the final chapter to this dark chapter in U.S. and world history are the ones who reject his arrogance and stand up to his power. (For those looking for a lesson from recent history, see Ukraine. Putin thought Kyiv would fold in three days. Although the costs have been hideously high, by fighting back, they have held Russian advances in check, exacted a very high toll on Russia militarily, economically and politically, and ultimately will prove that there is only one way to manage a bully.)

Politically, in the U.S. this means that the era of the institutionalists and “centrists” presenting themselves as the best front line defense against Trump, Miller and MAGA need to pushed aside. Indeed, they need to be defeated at the polls (in primaries) if they continue to promote views and approaches that have been proven again and again to be ineffective. The U.S. needs fighter right now. In different parts of the country that may mean people with differing positions on certain policy views. But it is no longer about left and center within America’s opposition party. It is about who will fight and who can turn their defiance and courage into victory.

In my view, that means that candidates who are strong, great communicators, courageous and who can turn out core Dem voters, especially next generation voters will do better—because taking the “middle of the road” approach which seeks “purple” votes or MAGA defectors necessarily means weakening stances where strength and clarity are required. Dems can win if they turn out next generation and previously disaffected voters, if they make clear what the stakes are. If they get off the appeasement train and stop playing into the hands of America’s bully-in-chief.

One last note: There is a coming reckoning for those who played the short game and backed Trump because they thought they could cash in on it. Here, I am looking at international leaders and corporate and Wall St. and tech bro CEOs who thought they were smarter than Trump and they could use his bare knuckles tactics to beat their competition and win big returns. At some point in the year ahead, as the handwriting appears on the wall for the aging president, they are going to have to come to grips with the fact that their closeness to Trump might soon become a liability. They will need to start putting some light between themselves and Trump-Miller-MAGA real soon or they will be seen as part of the problem and they will pay a high price for it. (When the U.S. government views certain tech bros and their companies as too close to a discredited and dangerous regime and they start ending their contracts, consider the knock-on effects around the world and across markets.)

This last point is important because the sooner they start to realize their short-sightedness will have a cost (see Elon and Tesla), the sooner key support will erode for Trump and the less power he has, the less he can abuse. This should be heard as a message to those who wish to fight back but don’t want a ground war. If, for example, the countries of the Americas start imposing sanctions on U.S. companies because of Trump’s actions, you can rest assured after some howling, he will start to change his actions.

Because, for those who deal in power, the only truly effective response is a greater force pushing back in a way that exacts a real cost—be that military (see Ukraine), economic or political power.

Trump and Miller are choosing the path of the bullies. In so doing, they are also dictating the approach their opponents must take if they seek to defeat them.