"The 'Make America Great Again' movement is a modern US version of the Nazi Party"

WELT "The 'Make America Great Again' movement is a modern US version of the Nazi Party" 22 minutes • 4 minutes read The international press delivers a devastating verdict on Trump's tariff sanctions. His radical approach, even at home, evokes drastic historical associations: "The MAGA movement is a modern version of the German Nazi Party." "The 'Make America Great Again' movement is a modern US version of the Nazi Party" With multilateral tariffs, Donald Trump wants to make global trade subservient to US conditions. This is how the international press views the tariff situation: "Nezavisimaya Gazeta": "The theory of equalizing trade conditions is just a masquerade" The Russian "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" does not believe that global markets will recover from Trump's tariff measures in the foreseeable future: "The stabilization of global markets after the initial tariff shock could quickly be replaced by a new crisis. Beijing has already announced that it is prepared to escalate the economic conflict with the US because the US is taking away the rest of the world's right to development. At the same time, Donald Trump himself has confirmed that his theory of equalizing trade conditions is just a masquerade. The American president explicitly stated that he wants to impose American goods on others in order to improve the trade balance. This is by no means about equalizing trade tariffs." "Rzeczpospolita": "In reality, he is dismantling the US's soft and hard power." According to the Polish newspaper "Rzeczpospolita," Trump is currently squandering a great deal of trust and power: "When one looks at the effects of this presidency today, only doubts remain. Trump's tariff policy has caused global stock markets to crash. The US is threatened by inflation and job losses. Protest marches are taking place in the streets of American cities. In foreign policy, traditional alliances are being broken. The US's credibility as a partner has been weakened. Negotiations on a ceasefire in Ukraine have so far brought only disappointments. Instead of the role of leader of the free world – threats and aggression against allies. Instead of the role of global policeman – political and economic adventurism. If these characteristics of the new US policy are supposed to be the path back to greatness, then Donald Trump is wrong. In reality, he is dismantling the US's soft and hard power." "Sme": "Superpower currently transforming into a fascist dictatorship" The Slovak daily newspaper "Sme" even compares the Trump movement to the Nazi Party: "The United States is a superpower currently transforming into a fascist dictatorship. American society is defenseless because its immune system has never faced such an attacker. The MAGA movement is a modern North American version of the German Nazi Party. It is just as nationalistic, racist, relies on a myth of chosenness, spreads lies, and claims territory from other states. The 47th president of the superpower has destroyed the world order based on cooperation rather than conquest. (...) The trade war that Trump unleashed is only a prelude to a real war, comparable to Russia's hybrid operations before the invasion of Ukraine. (...) If Americans become so impoverished that they begin to become dissatisfied, the regime will launch a war. This is a common solution. A war unites the people and forces them to support the dictator, even if they don't particularly love him. Their own dictator is ultimately perceived as a lesser threat than the enemy." "Wall Street Journal": "Feud illustrates the competing factions advising President Trump" Regarding the battle for the interpretation of the tariff measures, which is currently raging in the Trump camp, the "Wall Street Journal" writes: "Elon Musk expressed the opinion online on Tuesday that White House trade adviser Peter Navarro is "truly an idiot" and "dumber than a sack of bricks." Navarro had said on a television show that Tesla CEO Musk is not a real automaker, but merely an "assembler" of foreign parts. (...) This feud illustrates the competing factions advising President Trump and making up large parts of his political coalition. Which side prevails more often will likely determine whether Trump's economic policy succeeds. (...) Roughly speaking, Musk represents a segment of Trump's 2024 coalition—let's call it Silicon Valley MAGA (Make America Great Again)—that is somewhat libertarian and wants to liberate the US economy so it can grow and dominate the future, which would benefit all Americans. (...) Navarro belongs to the MAGA wing of (Trump's former chief strategist) Steve Bannon, who is bringing US industry behind the high walls of tariffs. This faction distrusts corporations, especially Big Tech and pharmaceuticals." "Nepszava": The US economy is not weakened by tariffs, but by homegrown problems For the Hungarian "Nepszava," the tariffs are a distraction from the real problems plaguing the US economy: "Donald Trump wants to save America as a superhero. The 'reciprocal tariffs' he announced last week (...) are not only economically senseless, but also dangerously stupid. (...) The US economy is not weakened by Chinese or European tariffs, but by poor industrial policy, the lack of funding for education, exacerbated social disparities, and the incompleteness of the social safety net. The imposition of the tariffs merely testifies to Trump's infinitely backward thinking about the economy. The world can no longer function according to national reflexes because economic relations have become too complex and intertwined. This step could trigger a spiral of recession that will hurt not only the United States, but also Europe and developing countries." "De Tijd": Tariffs equivalent to the bleach Trump recommended against coronavirus The Belgian newspaper "De Tijd" draws a comparison between Trump's tariff policy and a particularly bizarre coronavirus episode: "Few would deny that Trump's concern about the decline of part of the US economy is genuine and justified, and that he has harbored it for a long time. As early as the 1980s, he paid for press advertisements to draw attention to this issue. His warnings about the rise and expansion of China's economic power, for which he increased import tariffs to 104 percent on Tuesday, have also been laughed at for too long. But Trump's economic "medicine" is the equivalent of the bleach he touted as an injection against the coronavirus during the pandemic: dangerous nonsense. It destroys prosperity and only drives other countries further into the arms of China, which is becoming ever more powerful as a result. And even if there is a correction of US tariffs, the unpredictability of the United States remains a shocking fact.”