Steve Nolan: Destroying America, The Brand

Adolph Hitler and Donald Trump can be described as great salesmen, despite the fact that Adolph went to prison for a failed coup attempt and Donald was acquitted for his failed coup attempt. Despite Adolph’s low rank, Corporal, in the German Army, despite Trump’s multiple bankruptcies in business, both men were able to convince millions of people to follow them, consider them great leaders – that takes salesmanship.

MAGA people are incredibly sensitive to comparisons to Hitler, and they love to expound upon the fact that none of our fellow citizens have been carted-off to concentration camps, but both men were able to transform social norms in record breaking time. The known reason, frequently written about, is economic hardship, a feeling of being left behind or victimhood. For Germany it was the shame of losing WWI and the punishment enacted upon them by the victors. For the MAGA base it has been a clever combination of social factors referred to as the culture war. This consists of embracing long-standing Russian propaganda against immigrants, LGBTQ threats to the “traditional family,” and globalization versus nationalism; along with propaganda concerning the second amendment and a woman’s right to choose. 

In Russia and the United States, the Russian Orthodox Church and the Evangelical movement have been exploited by both Putin and Trump to create a narrative of an assault on “family values” and God’s will itself. Both men are also seen as God’s messengers by a significant number of both denominations. This is particularly problematic because it transcends politics to religious zealotry, producing crusaders or soldiers for what they believe is a war against Satanic influences. Both Putin and Trump, are sinners to the extreme – one a mass murderer of Chechens, Syrians and Ukrainians; the other a convicted felon and a sex offender. In Putin’s case a life-long atheist/communist before “conversion,” in Trump’s case, a career con man who was never seen inside a church until it became politically expedient. But both men understood the power of religion and the loyalty of that base – something easily exploited by men who believe the truth is irrelevant, and whose powers of persuasion are extraordinary. Trump was able to escape relatively unscathed from Helsinki after telling the biggest lie in American intelligence history: that proven U.S. intelligence was no more reliable than the word of a lifelong enemy of the United States. 

This was the first irrefutable proof of a mental pathology known as character or personality disorder, and proof of Congressional ignorance and/or complicity, by signing into law economic sanctions on Russia as punishment for cyber warfare that Trump claims to this day is a hoax. Congress voted 517-5 to impose those sanctions. Not only did Trump escape impeachment twice for crimes against the United States, but like Hitler, Stalin, and Putin, he is now engaged in weaponizing government to purge his political opponents. And in typical Soviet style, accusing those who defended the country against his assault, the “enemy of the state.”

Trump, like Putin, is a multi-billionaire. They are members of an elite class, and again, the irony and the tragedy of Russian history and current American history, is that a previous elite or aristocracy, must be purged so that the new elite can dominate the proletariat and rob them blind. No one knows how much of Russian wealth has been stolen by Putin and his oligarchs but Trump and his family are shamelessly conducting family business and accumulating personnel wealth by using all of the foreign and domestic connections gained through the power of the Presidency and the White House. 

Trump openly extols the politics of President McKinley, the gilded age, and a country made great through “talent and tariffs.” An era of robber barons and their ultimate trickle-down theory where the super wealthy get all the economic advantages given by government, along with ownership of the press to control the message, in order to convince the common man that economic stewardship, in the hands of the super-talented, and super-rich, will produce a high tide that lifts all ships. History, of course debunks this theory, and a World War, economic depression, and a second World War, produced the exact opposite: total destruction and a world order that had to be rebuilt after the loss of 60 million lives.

The aftermath of WWII fostered economic cooperation between nations, the founding of the United Nations, UNICEF, the World Bank, the Word Health Organization, USAID, etc. (after rebuilding the economies of Germany and Japan), with the belief that international cooperation, and charity by richer nations toward poorer nations, was the best inoculation against future conflict and war. 

At the end of the war in Europe and the Pacific we came to a collective gratitude for peace, an understanding that unbridled lust for power and wealth had created chaos. The nation, out of a sense of duty to those who had risked their lives for democracy, felt the need to reward selfless service and heroism through newly created government programs like the GI Bill and VA loans. Home ownership and higher education previously the privilege of the well-to-do. The Depression had previously awakened us to the role of government in providing safety nets like social security or medical insurance. A coal miner killed in a mine collapse leaving a widow with five children, a GI killed in the war leaving a widow with a farm to manage and children to feed, and thousands of other stories, convinced us that the purpose of government is to promote the general welfare, to secure liberty and justice for all. In modern parlance, we became more woke, and we slowly embraced diversity, equity and inclusion, but not before witnessing civil rights and human rights violations to include decades of murder and torture by the Ku Klux Klan, and the assassination of some of our greatest leaders.

Now all of that is in jeopardy by the tyranny of the ego of one man. Government programs mirroring religious commandments to love one another, to care for the least of our brethren, are being dismantled, mocked by the uber-rich declaring empathy was the biggest mistake of western civilization. Societal safety nets, and international good will, are all on the chopping block or already slashed or eliminated. The fact that it is all being done by someone with multiple bankruptcies, who put us seven trillion more dollars in debt in his first term; the fact that he brought in the richest man in the world to run an instantly created office of government efficiency, to root out fraud waste and abuse, is Orwellian. The only president in American history who is a sex offender and convicted of fraud, convinced tens of millions of Americans that he was rooting-out fraud and abuse. That is salesmanship!

He was able to sell the Turkish/Russian propaganda lie of a “Deep State” within government, plotting to undermine the sitting president; and he was able to convince 77 million voters that an extreme day of violence, where 140 police officers were wounded by an angry mob, was a day of love. That’s incredible salesmanship!

But the greatest danger and the greatest threat to America, NATO, and the free world, is Trump’s collusion with Russia. Despite overwhelming evidence of guilt, he was able to convince his base that he was not merely innocent of coordinating with Putin, but convince the base that his political opponents fabricated a false investigation of Russia. Six of the president’s closest friends and advisers were convicted of obstructing the investigation into Russian election interference. He pardoned all but his lawyer, Michael Cohen, who spilled the beans on Trump’s multiple lies about financial dealings and communication with Putin through Russian government operatives.

Two coverups are transpiring before our eyes and once again, the master salesman, is escaping discovery by the power of his personality and his media allies: his collusion with Jeffrey Epstein and his collusion with Vladimir Putin. The definition of collusion is to coordinate with the purpose to deceive. Everything about the Epstein case screams of a coverup, and hopefully for the victims, the truth will finally be known. But an ally, Ukraine, is at war with Russia. Putin continues to kill our Ukrainian friends. Trump has called Putin a genius for the invasion, he has called President Zelensky a dictator. He has blamed Zelensky and Joe Biden for the war, he has personally attacked Zelensky in a disgraceful Oval Office takedown; he rolled out the red carpet for an enemy in the midst of war, faked a peace agreement that not only has not led to a ceasefire, but has allowed Putin to keep bombing our ally daily with no commitment of the weapon systems needed to defeat our enemy. Trump held up an autograph picture from Putin and gushed like a school boy with a crush, once again reminding us of his personal relationship with the murderer of Alexie Navalny and so many tens of thousands of other innocent souls.

And here we are, nine years since the least qualified, most corrupt, person to ever run for president, came down that escalator in his hotel, and we still have no national dialogue about the one fact that is the cause of all of the chaos. Exactly like Hitler, the unfortunate and rare phenomenon: a malignant narcissist came to power. 

Because it is the least known mental illness people have rationalized sadism, pathological lying, the refusal to choose right over wrong, and the inability to feel sympathy or empathy. They have succumbed to the common mistake of thinking that a narcissist or egomaniac (which is not mental illness) is synonymous with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. When, in fact, we are witnessing antisocial and narcissistic character traits that are an obligatory discharge from military service. 

It is shameful that GOP leadership could not live up to their oath of office and impeach and convict him for his many crimes against the United States. And it is a shame that unless that same leadership comes to understand that they are dealing with the most serious mental health diagnosis of all, we could lose this Republic. Like Hitler, he has neutralized the other branches of government and his lack of conscience will know no bounds. He has just announced to our military leadership that half the American public is an “enemy within,” and that military force is needed to keep law and order in American cities. He went to the United Nations and told the ambassadors from all over the world that their countries are going to hell and that he has been “right about everything.” Hopefully our generals and admirals and our allied nations realize that they are dealing with a madman, because, like Hitler, he has already accomplished the near impossible — made our country, in just nine months, un-loveable to the rest of the world.  

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Copyright 2025 Steve Nolan. First published in Bucks County Beacon.

Steve Nolan’s books include Palace of Ruins: Poems (Ragged Sky, 2023). He spent 30 years in the military and 25 years as a mental health professional.