"Make America Great Again"

Origin and meaning of a political slogan

Lately I’ve heard a few people who strongly identify as Democrats suggest that the slogan “Make America Great Again” originated as a Nazi slogan. Though Hitler spoke of making Germany a strong country, his NSDAP never used a slogan akin to “Make Germany Great Again.” Probably the most well-known Nazi slogan was Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer (One People, One State, One Leader) as is expressed in this 1938 poster.

In fact, Trump borrowed the slogan “Make America Great Again” from Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign.

Reagan’s slogan was designed to animate Americans with new hope and optimism after the period of stagflation in the seventies.

We know from Trump’s 1988 interview with Oprah Winfrey that he has long been concerned about international trade and security arrangements that he perceives to be disadvantageous for America.

He made similar statements in a 1992 appearance on David Letterman.

There is absolutely nothing in Trump’s background that suggests he has a personality or ambitions that even remotely resemble those of Adolf Hitler.

The following are some of the humanitarian awards that Trump has won.

• National Jewish Hospital's Humanitarian Award (1976)^[

• Jewish National Fund's Tree of Life Award (1983)^[

• Ellis Island Medal of Honor (1986)^[

• Freedoms Foundation's President's Medal (1995)

• Muhammad Ali Entrepreneur Award (2007)

• Unicorn Children's Foundation's Shining Star Award (2008)

• Palm Beach Police Foundation's Palm Tree Award (2010)

• Lois Pope LIFE Foundation's Presidential Hero Award (2011)

• The Algemeiner's Liberty Award (2015)

• Marine Corps–Law Enforcement Foundation's Commandant's Leadership Award (2015)

• The Friends of Zion Museum's Friends of Zion Award (2017)

• 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center's Bipartisan Justice Award (2019)

Another extremely implausible claim that has been made about Trump was featured in an anonymously sourced Atlantic report Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers.’

The reporter, Jeffrey Goldberg, also wrote a 2002 piece in the New Yorker titled "The Great Terror,” in which he claimed to have investigated the nature of the Iraqi Army's chemical attack on the Kurds in Halabja in 1988 and the alleged ties between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda that were cited by Neocon hawks as justification for the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Donald Trump was opposed to the invasion and has repeatedly criticized it.

Though the Atlantic article relied on anonymous sources, it was readily believed by millions of people who will believe anything negative that is spoken about Trump, even by anonymous sources. These same people were subsequently gratified when John F. Kelly—a retired four-star Marine general who was Trump’s White House chief of staff—claimed that the Atlantic story was true.

It’s notable that Kelly made this claim after Trump fired him. For my part, I find it extremely hard to believe that Trump would tell his Marine chief of staff that he regarded the Marines buried in the World War I cemetery as “losers.”

Paradoxically, this purported scandal reminds me of the Blomberg–Fritsch Affair of 1938 in which two ranking Wehrmacht generals who had misgivings about Nazi leadership and war preparations were smeared by fabricated or partly fabricated scandals. After Hitler fired Generals Blomberg and Fritsch for their allegedly scandalous conduct, he subjugated the Wehrmacht to his direct control.

I mention that Kelly’s story reminds me of the Blomberg-Fritsch Affair because it has all the hallmarks of a propaganda smear for eliciting a highly emotional response that short-circuits critical thinking. Trump has repeatedly indicated that he does not like foreign military adventures and prefers to negotiate with foreign heads of state instead of bombing them. His preference—especially as it bears on Vladimir Putin—has earned him the enmity of Washington hawks who love spending hundreds of billions on foreign wars and killing hundreds of thousands of people.

Goldberg wrote his piece for the Atlantic, which is owned by Laurene Powell Jobs—the widow of Steve Jobs and a longtime close friend and confidante of Kamala Harris, as was detailed in this recent New York Times report Behind Kamala Harris’s Rise: Silicon Valley’s Wealthiest Woman.

Judging by the following photograph, Ms. Jobs was also pals with Jeffrey Epstein’s girlfriend and procuress, Ghislaine Maxwell. I cannot say for sure if this photograph has been authenticated, though I’ve never seen a challenge of its authenticity.

I hope that at least some of my Democrat friends and family members will take the time to read this post and consider the possibility that Washington Swamp Critters feel threatened by Donald Trump because they perceive him to be sincere in his proclamation that he wishes to drain the swamp.

Because the Swamp Critters feel threatened by him, they resort to every trick in the book to try to get rid of him, including fabricating scandalous statements.

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