Donald Trump has now denied ever having read Adolf Hitler’s 1925 memoir-manifesto Mein Kampf as he faces a firestorm over his recent run of anti-immigrant comments, which have been likened to the Nazi leader’s infamous “blood and soil” rhetoric.

The former president returned to the campaign trail in Waterloo, Iowa, on Tuesday evening where he doubled down on his earlier inflammatory remarks.

“It’s crazy, what’s going on. They’re ruining our country. And it’s true. They are destroying the blood of our country. That’s what they’re doing. They are destroying our country,” he said.

“They don’t like it when I said that,” he added, before denying browsing Hitler’s book.

“And I never read Mein Kampf. They said, ‘Oh, Hitler said that’. In a much different way,” he said.

  • macrocephalic@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    It’s easy to believe he’s never read Mein Kampf. It’s easy to believe he’s never read a book at all. He might have read his own book, maybe.

  • zeppo@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    “They don’t like it when I said that” is one of an entire genre of Trump “they” statements. Goes along with “they like to use that word” and other claims about “they”.

  • aseriesoftubes@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    “And I never read Mein Kampf. They said, ‘Oh, Hitler said that’. In a much different way,” he said.

    Note how he never says that what Hitler said or did was bad, but rather that he said what Hitler said in a different way.

    I long for the days when something like this would be absolutely, unequivocally disqualifying.

    • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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      11 months ago

      Sounds like he’s thinks the problem is plagiarism rather than similarity of content.

    • TechyDad@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Seriously. We went from “you spelled potato wrong or screamed slightly weird so no presidency for you” to “you’re quoting Hitler? Well, no big deal. It looks like you’re still the frontrunner for your party.”

  • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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    11 months ago

    Trump is a bad person and so is everyone who supports him.

    If you ever wondered what you would do if you found yourself in Germany in the 1930s, now you know.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Voting for trump doesn’t mean you want the president to commit atrocities against your fellow citizens, but it does mean that a politician promising to do so isn’t a deal breaker

  • unreasonabro@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    People just refuse to get it. Racist speech is animal-level shit which is always the same even across languages and cultures. You don’t need to have read it before or even heard it before to reproduce it. If you find yourself calling someone dirty, calling them rats or rodents or vermin or pigs or whatever your local equivalent, or really just judging anyone based on your preferred stereotypes, you may be doing the thing you say you hate.

  • recapitated@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    You don’t need to read that book to know this stuff. He’s putting his ignorance of on full display. Ignorance of some of the most important AND MOST OBVIOUS and accessible historical periods …

    • PilferJynx@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      It’s fascism 101. I wish people were more well read with history. The path these neo conservatives are going is going to end in suffering. What happens when your authoritarian leader rids themselves of their undesirables? They turn on you and make damn sure you can’t fight back and rebel just so they can stay in power. It’s always the same story.

  • kaffiene@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I believe him. I don’t think he’s ever read a book at all. Plenty of morons manage to be racist all by themselves.

    • _dev_null@lemmy.zxcvn.xyz
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      11 months ago

      I believe him, he’s too much of a dumbass to remember anything he’s read in a book.

      But the people that are feeding him the garbage he spews on the other hand…

  • Dr_Decoy@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    He doesn’t read. The question we should be asking ourselves is who is telling him to say it, and what is their true agenda?

  • Wrench@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Uh huh.

    The natural reaction if that were true would be to take a step back and re-evaluate your rhetoric and why you’re being compared to one of the most evil people in history.

    He’s read it cover to cover and loves it. That’s why the parallels are narrowing and becoming extremely clear. And why he’s not phased at the comparison.

    • modifier@lemmy.ca
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      11 months ago

      Believing Donald Trump has not read a book is easy, and this book is no exception. I have no problem believing he didn’t read it.

      Now Steven Miller on the other hand…

      • nightofmichelinstars@sopuli.xyz
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        11 months ago

        I believe Stephen Miller has it memorized and creeps into Trump’s bedroom through the window while he’s sleeping and whispers it into his ear, and has been doing this every night for 6 years. I can picture this clearly.

      • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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        11 months ago

        Yup, this line probably wasn’t just stumbled upon randomly in his rotting brain, it was fed to him from one of his white nationalist speech goons. And it’s possible they too didn’t get it straight from Hitler but just read it on a neo-Nazi thought piece and found it compelling. Most white nationalists aren’t studying the foundational texts, but they all seem to know the same words.

  • a baby duck@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I have no trouble believing he didn’t read something. Maybe if there were an illustrated version…

  • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    His mother, wife, and ex-few are immigrants. Although, I guess in the case of his mother, she did play a party in destroying the country.

  • Adalast@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Honestly, for me, it is more bothersome and terrifying if he is coming to this rhetoric through a convergent mentality as opposed to parroting a past fascist dictator.