Donald Trump isn’t a Nazi. But He’s Starting to Think Like One.

by Sarah Burgess

Ahead of the critical midterm elections, US President Donald Trump has redoubled his efforts to reshape democracy around nationalism and exclusion rather than liberalism and tolerance. Carl Schmitt, the so-called ‘crown jurist of the Third Reich” who laid out the blueprint for Nazism, pursued the same goal.

Schmitt, a political theorist, was frustrated by Germany’s weak international standing after World War I and its bickering Weimar Republic government. Just as Trump vowed to ‘Make America Great Again’, Schmitt desired a powerful German nation, governed by an authoritarian leader willing and able to take decisive political action. Like Trump, he recognised the country’s masses were angry, dissatisfied with the status quo and hungry for radical leadership. And just like the president, Schmitt spotted an opportunity to redefine democracy through persuasion and rhetoric rather than brute force.

In Schmitt’s view, real democracy centred on a ‘friend-enemy distinction’ — framing your group identity in opposition to political opponents and competing ideas, rejecting anything and anyone that threatens your lifestyle, livelihood or comfort. Trump also seems to believe democracy is rooted in identity politics and fear of the ‘other’. The Nazis targeted Jews; Trump has…