Only Trump could say, "Hitler did some good things," in today's environment and get away with it with no penalties.
Reporting of Trump's fascination with Hitler began in December of last year. The things John Kelly has been reported saying now aren't new. But, this close to the election, they might have some effect. Pollsters talk about October surprises. Is this it?
There were many other times that we thought Trump's fascination with Hitler or his embrace of people who praised Hitler was or should have been the end of his political career.
One high profile incident was having Kanye West and Nick Fuentes for dinner at Mar-a-Lago. Trump feigned ignorance of who Nick Fuentes was and what he represented.
Trump also claimed in 2016 that he that he didn't know who David Duke was, the leader of the Ku Klux Klan. That's not true. Trump came out against Duke in 1991 when Duke ran for Governor of Louisiana. In 2000 Trump rejected affiliation with the Reform Party because of its connections to Duke, who he called a racist and a bigot.
Kanye now calls himself Ye, and once thought of naming an album after Hitler. Fuentes is a well-known white supremacist who praises Hitler often. In an InfoWars broadcast with Alex Jones, he said, "Every human being has something that they brought to the table, especially Hitler." There's actually a mountain of statements and speeches he's made in praise of Hitler. Trump said that Ye just happened to bring the guy along and he had no idea who he was. Do we really believe that?
I'm sure Trump knows who Rep. Paul Gosar is. Twice in 2023 he used his House.gov newsletter to promote sites that praised Hitler. Gosar blamed it on a third party aggregating service.
Trump has endorsed Lieutenent Governor Mark Robinson to be Governor of North Carolina, who has described himself as a black Nazi. On a porn message board he said, "I'll take Hitler over any of the s**t that's in Washington right now." Trump has been strangely silent about Robinson since this news came to light.
Chris Sununu, who almost had a spine when he was supporting Nikki Haley for president, just brushes it off and says he'll still vote for Trump.
Let's not forget that in 2022, JD Vance said that Trump was "America's Hitler." How times have changed.
We actually have to wonder whether Trump's Hitler comments will make Jews vote against Trump, when it should be a resounding "Yes!"
Earlier this year, Rep. Vicente Gonzales said that Latinos voting for Trump was like Jews voting for Hitler. I don't even need to wonder why he said it. Republicans were aghast, of course.
In 2016, a Washington Post columnist said that she always wondered how Hitler was able to come to power but that after seeing Trump, now she knew.
You've got journalists wondering whether 2024 will be the new 1933.
In a 1990 Vanity Fair article the late Ivana Trump said that Donald kept a copy of a book of Hitler's speeches in his bedside cabinet. Let's not kid ourselves, Trump's fascination with Hitler goes way back.
Trump's connection with white supremacy has been on full display. Remember after Charlottesville with the white supremacist march, he said that there were good people on both sides.
There was the point in the 2020 presidential debate against Biden that he told the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by."
There's the almost direct quotes of Hitler with "poisoning the blood of our country", "vermin", and the "enemy within."
Republicans are falling all over themselves, not to condemn Trump, but to say that the Hitler comments are all made up, that they never happened. They didn't say anything last year when the Hitler comments first were reported. Why should they be so upset now? Because it's right before the election and some people still have the ability to think.
There was that video reposted on Trump's Truth Social account that showed an article that promised a "unified reich" if he's reelected in 2024.
While the debate goes on about whether Trump made the Hitler comments, the far right, white supremacist part of the country already thought Trump was their Hitler. They started giving Trump the Nazi salute openly when Trump won in 2016. There's many videos of it. It's not made up.
Once again, Trump will try to distance himself from controversy while the Republicans hope that Teflon Don still has his coating.
November 5th is going to be interesting. As Bette Davis once said: "Fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy night."