Trump claims he’s never read Mein Kampf as he repeats anti-immigrant rhetoric
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.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-hitler-mein-kampf-immigrants-b2467201.htmlOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
Because it was actually a book of Hitler's speeches that he loved to read.
Additionally, Trump wanted US military generals to emulate generals of the third Reich and treat him like he was Hitler:
Then there's this:
Trump seems to aspire to be Hitler-like, and he even tried to take supreme dictatorial power through populism, lies and propaganda like Hitler did.
I am more shocked by the fact that that motherfucker reads books at all.
The fact that he reads so little yet keeps this book close to his bed is telling.
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.
I would believe that he hired someone to read it and then give him the cliff notes and he just kept interrupting the guy when he was trying to explain it to him.
Is there an audiobook version?
I doubt he even wrote his own book, much less be able to read it
Actually it was ghost written.
Lmao, I should have known, because of course it was. Trump is just weapons grade stupid
I think the guy who wrote it did an interview saying he now regretted it.
“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”.
"In America there is no us and them. There is only us." - Bill Clinton
“(…) we must move forward, not backward; upward, not forward; and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom!” - Bill Clinton, maybe, kinda…
Are these big strong people with tears in their eyes?
“They don’t like it when we tell them that. That the smartest people support Trump”
I totally believe that he hasn't read it, or isn't capable of reading it. But I bet someone read it to him.
He hasn't even read The Art of the Deal."
But, in fairness, I wouldn't either.
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.
Sounds like he's thinks the problem is plagiarism rather than similarity of content.
Exactly. "But but I changed the words around!!"
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."
He is actually correct. Hitler said it in German.
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.
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
off topic but that's probably the best line in all 8 movies
Didn't Tom Felton improvisiert it, because he forgot his lines?
I very much believe he hasn't read it. In fact I'd be surprised if anyone in his circle of cronies has read it. It's so badly written.
It's a stream of consciousness completely devoid of structure. Sentences drag out for five lines and paragraphs go on for more than a page. There is often a change of subject along the way, forcing you to go back and re-read the garbage you couldn't hold onto the first time around.
It took me four weeks to get halfway through and I'm quite an avid reader.
Came here to say exactly this. He’s never read that book and he doesn’t truly grasp the reason the book was written or the history behind it. He has no clue as to the context.
And it’s an awful book, like you said. Not just for what it advocates but it’s just so badly written. It’s fucking awful. You made it further than I did.
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.
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 ...
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.
I was talking to my dad once and he practically quoted something Michael Savage had said like 2 weeks before (it had come up on a polisci class, I don’t listen to that drivel) and when I told him as much, he said he doesn’t listen to him. Which I believe.
My point is, trump has definitely never read Mein Kampf, the man can’t read at all. But I’m confident that Mein Kampf has been parroted to him countless times.
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.
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...
I don't think dude read anything in his life lol
Maybe Art of the Deal, but only because somebody else wrote it.
Based
Trump, I don’t think anyone is accusing you of having read a book
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.
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...
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.
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.
I have no trouble believing he didn't read something. Maybe if there were an illustrated version...
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?
>implying Trump has read even one book
Anything longer than 280 characters at a time, and he has to take a McDonalds break.
Hey, even an edgelord moron will attempt a read at mein Kemp or whatever edgy book. Doesn't mean he understood or read too deeply into it
It’s not a hard book to understand from what I’ve heard. It’s an edgelord screed of a manifesto written from a prison for attempting to overthrow a democratically elected government
I don't think Trump reads many books overall. He probably just heard the quote somewhere and didn't bother to check it before using it as his own. I'm writing this off as an unsurprising symptom of his lack of intelligence.
Trump, rather famously, can only be confirmed to have owned one book, and it is Mein Kampf.
That said, I can indeed still believe he didn't finish it, even if he remembers a couple quotes.
he probably hasn't tried bc he thinks it's in German
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.
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.
Listening to the audiobook technically doesn’t count as reading
Narrated by Stephen Miller, and with live readings too!
This is like Michael Keaton’s character in The Other Guys where he keeps quoting TLC and denies he knows anything about it.
Trump’s a creep, creep, yeah.
He doesn't strike me as the reading type, but I'm pretty sure he listens to people who read it.
Of course he didint read it, he listened to the audio book.
On the one hand, Mein Kampf is not a comic book, so it might be a bit above Trumps reading capabilities. On the other hand, he has more than enough minions happy enough to read it to him, and explain all the three-syllables-or-more words to him in a pacient manner. I wonder how many Leni Riefenstahl movies he has watched, though, dreaming to be the star...
@MicroWave He's been quoted as saying he wished his generals had been like Hitler's generals. Loyal & obviously Nazis.
The guy can't even hold a Bible up the right way. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he doesn't read any book above a third grade level, and even then only if it features tons of ego-stroking, comically flattering images of himself.
But no comment on whether his dad read it to him when he was a kid
All snuggled under the covers with just his orange forehead peeking out over his eyes so he could see the pictures, as he drifted off to sleep each night. Yeah, I could see that.
As if Fred Trump would have ever done such a thing.
I believe him. I also think he binges those history channel shows about Hitler.
I'd wager that's where he got the sentence from, or something similar, because he's never read mein kampf. It's not an easy book to read, and he certainly isn't a reader by any means.
That said, someone could be spoonfeeding these little nuggets to the dumbass.
Why would he? He probably gets his sick reference game from Miller and the rest of the gang
I had to read an excerpt from Mein Kampf for school (my only thought the entire time I was reading it was "good God, people were swayed by this?")
Maybe Trump didn't but the alternative is that he came up with those ideas independently which is Really Not Better
As if he'd read any book! He's had his people read it, to write his speach that he will read off the teleprompter (more or less)
me either to be honest
@MicroWave Well, I guess that settles it. He'd never lie.
I’m fucking shocked he’s ever read a book at all.
He only slept with My New Order on his bedside table, but sure Don, I'm sure u never read it.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-adolf-hitler-books-bedside-cabinet-ex-wife-ivana-trump-vanity-fair-1990-a7639041.html
Hey, hi. Can we stop talking about the fucking peanut? He lied, he lies, he will lie. There, I've covered all news stories about the orange dreamsicle. You're all caught up forever.
If he stops being relevant to American politics, then sure
Sure. But this Mein Kampf story has happened before (unless I'm crazy, but this is like the third time around) and there's nothing new here. Trump's goal is attention. He will say anything for attention. Ignore this nothing story, we already know he's a fascist. Anyone who doesn't, probably isn't going to. So, stop giving him your attention, unless it's about his various trials or crimes. Stop watching so they stop making this shit. His base is such a small percent that no one, except grifters, sell to them. So, stop giving him attention.
Unfortunately, he has more support in the Republican primary than the other 5 candidates combined. Ignoring him won't make him go away.
thud thud thud
Yep. You got me. Better give him all your attention so that all the news sites know to cover everything he says and does, so that he takes over the nation's attention again. Need to do it, he might win the election. Need to check if the fascist is a fascist, especially when everyone knows he's a fascist. Look at all the social norms he's stepping on, him, the fascist, is corroding the foundation of our society. The Fascist. Must keep giving him attention or otherwise he might win. /s
I'm not saying ignore him. I'm saying give your attention to the things he DOESN'T want attention on. And definitely less than hanging on his every fucking word.
it's just a book. much like any other book, it doesnt have any power unless it's granted it. look at the Koran, for example.
True, but it is the thoughts of Hitler before he came to power, before the decisions that constitute the planning of the Holocaust were made, before he destroyed his country and killed millions of people in industrialized state sanctioned murder. And this presidential candidate sure sounds a lot like that book.
It's not even about the book itself