“He who saves his Country does not violate any law,” Donald Trump said yesterday.

Two possible reactions:

1) Continue on the trajectory that got us here in the first place by discarding this as “just Trump being Trump”

2) Grapple in earnest with the fact that Trump asserts dictatorial power as the providential leader tasked with saving the nation.

This is acutely dangerous.

According to Trump and his supporters, only one man, one providential leader can guide the nation to its re-birth and former glory – “Only I,” Trump likes to say; he was “chosen by God” to save America, he said in his inaugural address. He means it. Those around him mean it.
Trumpists regard any opposition to their project of national purification and re-birth as fundamentally illegitimate. It is dogma among Trump’s supporters that he as their leader embodies the will of the true people, the Volk. Trump is the tribune of “real America.”
Calling this fascism offers no magic solution. But the idea that it is somehow ridiculous and beyond the pale to call Trumpism fascist relies on a naively dismissive view of Trump – and on ignoring the accelerating radicalization on the Right that has been happening around and in support of Trump.

Trump is the fascistic leader of a far-right coalition that unites different shades of radical reaction and “counter-revolutionary” extremism.

It’s unclear if they will succeed in destroying the constitutional order and ending democratic self-government. But they are undoubtedly trying.

https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/donald-trump-american-fascist

Donald Trump, American Fascist

Trumpism is what a specifically American, twenty-first century version of fascism looks like. And in November, fascism is on the ballot.

Democracy Americana

@tzimmer_history
They are also being given an astounding amount of cover* by the media as a whole.

If you'll forgive the bsky link-

https://bsky.app/profile/bubbaprog.lol/post/3li6ayauo4s2f

ed: 'coverage' -> cover (as I originaly intended, autocorrect or sleepy brain)

Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog.lol)

you can look at this and say we're divided or you can look at this and say that a majority of americans oppose every one of these things [contains quote post or other embedded content]

Bluesky Social
@Oggie @tzimmer_history
I made the mistake of watching local and network news last night and the worst part is they’re covering him as if this is all normal. They’re facilitating the coup.

@pomegranate_stew @Oggie @tzimmer_history

They fear him already, Angst to lose everything. And they're not wrong.

@tzimmer_history I'll say this: out of the Fascist leaders to rise in the last C, I believe the only one to die in bed (OK, Salazar in Portugal, too) after holding power for 36 years, was Francisco Franco Bahamonde, who under different circumstances pulled together a coalition of such (similarly??) disparate forces as the Falange (Fascist 'syndicalists') Catholic reactionaries, militarism advocates...& what else??
I hasten to add “stupid” in describing Elong.
@tzimmer_history and if "saving the country" entails a young Italian plumber doing for Donald Trump, he will be a national hero.
@tzimmer_history He who betrays his country does not deserve to live there.

@tzimmer_history He has a mandate for dictatorial power.

He said "you only have to vote for me this once and you'll never have to vote again".

And America decided that that's what they wanted.

@tzimmer_history The only thing America currently needs saving from is him and his regime.
@beecycling @tzimmer_history I suspect the USA would also need a new system of government because the current one is broken.
@tzimmer_history Alt Text: He who saves his country does not violate any law.

@tzimmer_history or

3) Identify that the source of the quote isn't Napoleon or anyone else at all.

It originates on Stormfront.

A literal Nazi forum.

@tzimmer_history We need to send him to the island of Elba
@tzimmer_history Presidential assassins everywhere celebrating.
@tzimmer_history So... I guess then Trump isn't saving our country. Gee what a surprise. :P
@tzimmer_history So he who destroys his country violates all laws, right? https://youtu.be/qtApqMR3o8k?si=fFNco_L8eFnvPnZJ
'Tech genius' image wears thin after series of errors calls DOGE competence into question

YouTube

@tzimmer_history It's a weaselly version of Nixon's more straightforward, "If the President does it, it is not illegal." Which might sound like it might make sense, but is effortless to debunk: A President could commit any number of acts that anyone would agree is criminal, such as drunkenly crashing a car into a shop window.

So he obviously didn't mean it that literally. But any effort to interpret it renders it meaningless. It's either wrong or meaningless.

@tzimmer_history

This thug is not planning to leave in four years, mark my words…

@tzimmer_history he's not wrong about the crisis of country in that late stage capitalism is giving away to neofeudalism at a break neck pace.
@tzimmer_history Of course Trump is not saving his country: he's destroying it.
@tzimmer_history This is Louis XIV's divine right and Adolf Hitler's Führerprinzip all rolled into one: "what the all-knowing, infinitely wise and benevolent Leader does, could never be against the law".
@tzimmer_history When I saw this, my first reaction was »is he now calling for his own demise?«
@tzimmer_history It’s capitalized as if from the “original German.”

honestly i feel this is less of an assertion of dictatorial ambitions and more of a stochastic terrorism wink to the most rabid of his suppoorters

"i will not punish you if you rid me of this meddlesome priest"

@tzimmer_history Is he talking about Mangione?
@Thomas Zimmer so according to this view the shooter who tried to take out trump was not violating any laws?

@tzimmer_history @briankrebs I think it’s worth considering that given Trump is trying to “save the country” from marginalized & disadvantaged people to promote white supremacy, that what he’s saying is that for those people, there are no laws protecting them that he won’t break.

Expect camps. Expect murder.

@tzimmer_history @pluralistic tbh, I don't believe Trump wrote that himself -- someone on his team wrote it. It's too pithy for Trump.
@tzimmer_history but also, if he's not saving his country, does that not imply that he broke all the laws?
@tzimmer_history He who violates the law plagues his Country, by definition.
@tzimmer_history The problem with that political philosophy is that it works both ways. The Resistance is not bound by legal guard rails either.
@tzimmer_history Everything points to it. He is king and America is allied with dictators of the world now.
@tzimmer_history I'll be sure to pass the info on to Luigi Mangione...

@tzimmer_history

I presume the Dems are just treating all of this as 'political' instead of repeatedly, every day, yelling "HE'S LYING ABOUT EVERYTHING. HE JUST WANTS THE MONEY. THAT'S IT." ?

@tzimmer_history Come on America, for over 200 years you gave the blood of your son's for freedom.

Now you've given a pussy grabbing used car salesman the keys to the mansion, on a silver platter no less.

Less talk, more Luigi.

@tzimmer_history We need to accept the fact that this is a fascist takeover, and act accordingly.
@tzimmer_history
He means himself. He's still trying to wriggle out from under felony convictions.

@tzimmer_history Even if its trump being trump, that doesn't mean we should put up with it. That is more of a reason to get him out of power in my opinion and to derail any awful plans he has.

Its like I once said to someone about the republican party, I am not even sure they are hypocrites anymore doing what they do. Because that is the republican platform itself, hypocrisy.

It would seem cute to be that obvious if it weren't so damn crazy and evil

That is platform they have striven for, so even if they considered hypocrites individually, it doesn't change what their platform is:

A huge double standard and a dumpster fire fueled by an inferno of evil