Comparisons of Trump to Hitler Beckon Unstable People to Assassinate Him

Washington Post & others media outlets should consider the possibility that they are inciting murder and the subversion of our electoral process.

On this day, 80 years ago, the 36-year-old German army colonel, Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler at his Wolf's Lair secret headquarters on the Eastern Front. Stauffenberg was scheduled to attend the daily briefing between the Hitler and the army high command. In his briefcase, he carried a time bomb. He deposited the briefcase on the floor under the conference table near Hitler, and then left the headquarters and returned to Berlin. The bomb detonated, but the explosive did not kill Hitler, and the plot to overthrow the Nazi regime was foiled. The following day, Claus was executed by firing squad, and many of his co-conspirators, including Field Marshall Erwin von Witzleben and the dissident pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer were executed by hanging. Claus was the subject of the 2008 film Valkyrie, starring Tom Cruise, and many people in Germany and abroad still consider the young Count a great hero and martyr.

The Washington Post and other media outlets should think twice before they compare Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler—a perfectly preposterous assertion that has zero basis in fact. Contrary to Hitler’s spectacularly aggressive militarism, Donald Trump has never shown the least interest in military adventurism, which is doubtless one reason why the Deep State and its Military-Industrial Complex cronies want to get rid of him.

Indeed, it seems to me that—by making this comparison—the Washington Post is sending out an implicit invitation to unstable young men to take a shot at Trump. Legal experts should seriously examine that possibility that the Washington Post may be held liable for inciting murder and the subversion of our electoral process, and therefore our Constitutional Republic.