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Donald Trump's past comments about 'Mein Kampf' resurface (www.newsweek.com)

submitted 10 months ago by HLMenckenFan@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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[-] fuzzywombat@lemmy.world 87 points 10 months ago

I think Trump can wear a giant swastika necklace much like Flavor Flav and get on stage praising Hitler today and his numbers won't change. His MAGA crowd will likely like him even more if he did that. Discussing whether if Trump read Hitler's writings or not seems kinda pointless right now.

[-] yOya@lemm.ee 47 points 10 months ago

The article said: "Last April, perhaps in a surge of Czech nationalism, Ivana Trump told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler's collected speeches, My New Order, which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed.

"Kennedy now guards a copy of My New Order in a closet at his office, as if it were a grenade."

Referring to this, Trump is quoted as saying: "It was my friend Marty Davis from Paramount who gave me a copy of Mein Kampf, and he's a Jew."

In response, Davis is quoted as saying he did give his friend a book about Hitler, but that it was actually My New Order A Collection of Speeches not Mein Kampf.

"I thought he would find it interesting," Davis said. "I am his friend, but I'm not Jewish."

In the article, Trump is quoted as saying: "If I had these speeches, and I am not saying that I do, I would never read them."

The article also said a Trump Organization employee would click his heels and make a mock Nazi salute at Trump saying "Heil Hitler."

This is like a sketch comedy bit. The funniest part was when Trump tried to pull the "I have a Jewish friend" defense and the guy wasn't even Jewish.

[-] Yondoza@sh.itjust.works 16 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Trump: "I have a Jewish friend that gave me Mein Kampf."

Editor: "Close Mr Trump, but the Friend was not Jewish the book was not Mein Kampf."

News: "Trump had a friend."

Me: "Did anybody fact check this? ... Well, I'll be damned..."

[-] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 8 points 10 months ago

I mean, he was very good friends with Jeffrey Epstein, so there’s that

[-] Candelestine@lemmy.world 35 points 10 months ago

tbf, I wouldn't be surprised if he never has actually read an entire book. You don't necessarily need to have read an original source to parrot some of its contents, there's plenty of other ways.

[-] grue@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

As fun as it is to dunk on how stupid and demented Trump is, it also serves to downplay the threat he poses and is thus unhelpful at best or disinformation at worst.

I also feel obligated to point out that he wasn't always as addled and incoherent as he is now -- if you go back and watch old interviews from the '80s or whatever, he was, in fact, capable of stringing thoughts together at least.

Now please stop making me appear to defend traitorous assholes!

[-] BackOnMyBS@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

watch old interviews from the '80s

I don't know if I'm just easily triggered because of personal experiences, but I don't understand how anyone can look at him speak and not recognized his unhealthy grandiosity. That guy is not mentally okay and should not be in charge of anything.

[-] Candelestine@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

Not even his intelligence, that's the personality of someone who cheated their way through anything that might've involved assigned reading.

I think we all know there's a lot of ways to get out of assigned reading, and it is not a rare phenomenon.

[-] PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@lemmy.ml 10 points 10 months ago

A lot of this probably comes from his advisors. But i imagine those advisors would follow him back into the whitehouse

[-] Candelestine@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

He's got some new ones lined up too apparently. I'm sure they're all "wonderful people".

[-] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

"I only hire the best people!"

[Proceeds to be the president that fired the most high ranking staff he appointed himself]

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

Yeah, Stephen Miller is still one of his most trusted advisors and sometimes speech writer and you KNOW that creep loves himself some Hitler!

Personally I think the Hitler influence is coming from Trump himself AND Stephen Miller. Probably other advisors too.

[-] WalrusDragonOnABike@kbin.social 7 points 10 months ago

Didn't he supposedly keep a copy of it by his bed at some point? Seems like a weird book to just keep around for decor. Whether he ever finished it is a separate issue, but I think it's fair to assume he's at least read parts of it.

[-] grue@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

It was My New Order (a book of Hitler's collected speeches) that he supposedly kept by his bed. That's a separate story from his admission that a friend gave him a copy of Mein Kampf.

In other words, Trump is apparently such a fanboi that he owned multiple books by Hitler!

[-] agent_flounder@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

Yeah it says that thing about the speeches in the article.

But gee, I mean he isn't waving a Nazi flag and he doesn't have a toothbrush stache and saying "I totally love Hitler and I am a diehard Nazi" so I, I just don't know if we have enough evidence to draw a conclusion yet.

/S if it wasn't obvious.

[-] 800XL@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

Replace Mein Kampf with the bible and it still stands! Drink Bleach and his cult have read neither!

[-] paddirn@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

I'm sure he hadn't read any part of it, maybe not even the title, but it is a good indicator of the people he associates with, which says something about him. Nobody just gifts you a copy of 'Mein Kampf' for shits and giggles, it's not something you just read for fun. While I'm sure plenty of people have read it just to see it for themselves and they're not actually racists (the same way somebody can read a religious text without being religious), BUT it's not something you just gift to somebody without trying to suggest some ideas to them.

[-] SCB@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Worth noting that, hilariously, no one gave him a copy of Mein Kampf. The person gave him a book on Hitler's speeches, and Trump remembers this as his "Jewish friend giving him "Mein Kampf" because he's a fucking idiot.

[-] Lophostemon@aussie.zone 1 points 10 months ago

Stephen Miller probably read the picture book version to him at beddy-beddy-bed time.

[-] Son_of_dad@lemmy.world 34 points 10 months ago

His side won't care or they'll be happy about this. And any "centrist" who is still undecided on Trump in 2023, isn't a centrist, they're just dishonest right wingers.

[-] Facebones@reddthat.com 21 points 10 months ago

I said it in in 2016 too, but it only becomes more true every day. If you can watch Trump's speeches explicitly parroting Hitlers language and talking points, then still play the "both sides" game, you're just a MAGAt who doesn't want the stigma.

[-] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

And actually even worse than those people are the ones actively voting against democracy with third party votes. What they think this means is that get to pretend they did a moral thing and refused to participate in perpetuating old white men in power. What it actually means is that they can't be bothered with caring about consequences and they are moronic hipsters who gave a vote to Trump.

[-] Wrench@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

And lemmy is full of those fools.

[-] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Yeah! Ridiculous...

[-] uberkalden@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

It's pretty bad. Notably worse than reddit ever was. It's enough to make me use their trash app from time to time

[-] GardeningSadhu@lemm.ee 5 points 10 months ago

Yep, i'm so fed up with liberals and would love to just say "fuck it, i'm a conservative now" but can't do that when the current conservative party now literally the Nazi party.

[-] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 18 points 10 months ago

I know kampfs. Love a good kampf. I know people, hose people know kampfs and they say "Mister President", they still call me "Mister President" because I'm still the president. They know presidents, and they know me and they know I'm the president because they're smart. Smart people. Good people. They know presidents and they know kampfs and they say, "The president needs a kampf. Gotta have a good kampf or you're not even really the president." Sleepy Joe Biden doesn't have a kampf, now look at what's happening. Gas is $25/gallon, there are sticks in my yard, they made it illegal to be an American. They said, "You can't do that here, that's American."

[-] ReasonablePea@sh.itjust.works 16 points 10 months ago

I have no idea if this is a legitimate quote or not

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 17 points 10 months ago

We all know how this is going to go:

I don't quote Hitler, I'm not a Nazi
[Sarcastically] Well, I guess I'm Hitler now.
But you know, Hitler had some good ideas, he was a strong leader
Look, if Nazis want to support me, that's their business, I'm not a Nazi, I just think Hitler was right about a lot of stuff...

Meanwhile, in the small group of black and jewish people who support him, a few are going to trickle away. A few are going to jump on the sarcastic bandwagon and pretend that they support him because he's a Nazi too. When he starts getting serious about liking Hitler, a few more will drift away, but others will just double down.

[-] wafflez@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

You should be a fortune teller

[-] Hasuris@sopuli.xyz 13 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

In Germany "Mein Kampf" in its unedited, uncommented form is banned and maybe that's not a bad idea. Prevents dimwits from reading it unfiltered and ... become president with a twisted world view heavily influenced and inspired by one of the worst dictators and murderers in humans history.

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

Agreed. I think their solution of banning the unedited version while allowing a version annotated by non-fascist historians is spot on.

[-] Revan343@lemmy.ca 9 points 10 months ago

As if Trump has actually read it

[-] agent_flounder@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

If not, other nazis probably told him all about it over the years.

[-] Revan343@lemmy.ca 5 points 10 months ago

Oh yeah, I'm sure he's heard all the talking points. Probably had a secretary read him the sparknotes

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

And if he ever forgets, Stephen Miller will remind him.

[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 9 points 10 months ago

He couldn't be sure, of course, because he was unable to read the cover.

[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 8 points 10 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Donald Trump's past comments about Mein Kampf have resurfaced after he referenced the book penned by Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler in a speech in Iowa last night.

Trump has earned criticism for his speech in the Hawkeye State after he said immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our county" during a rally in New Hampshire over the weekend.

The Biden-Harris campaign accused Trump of "parroting Hitler" in his speeches, while a resurfaced interview reveals the moment the former president talked about being given Mein Kampf by a friend.

The article said: "Last April, perhaps in a surge of Czech nationalism, Ivana Trump told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler's collected speeches, My New Order, which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed.

Referring to this, Trump is quoted as saying: "It was my friend Marty Davis from Paramount who gave me a copy of Mein Kampf, and he's a Jew."

In response, Davis is quoted as saying he did give his friend a book about Hitler, but that it was actually My New Order A Collection of Speeches not Mein Kampf.

The original article contains 545 words, the summary contains 192 words. Saved 65%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[-] blazeknave@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

"don't call everything Nazis.." "damn leftists calling it all fascism"

Yeah... We're here now. Thanks for tone policing the good guys for eight fucking years

[-] phoneymouse@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

This is how you cover Trump

[-] zurohki@aussie.zone 1 points 10 months ago

We can be confident that Trump never actually read it, whichever book it was. He probably thinks Mein Kampf is about a guy going camping.

this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2023

328 points (96.3% liked)

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