Donald Trump has now denied ever having read Adolf Hitler’s 1925 memoir-manifesto Mein Kampf as he faces a firestorm over his recent run of anti-immigrant comments, which have been likened to the Nazi leader’s infamous “blood and soil” rhetoric.

The former president returned to the campaign trail in Waterloo, Iowa, on Tuesday evening where he doubled down on his earlier inflammatory remarks.

“It’s crazy, what’s going on. They’re ruining our country. And it’s true. They are destroying the blood of our country. That’s what they’re doing. They are destroying our country,” he said.

“They don’t like it when I said that,” he added, before denying browsing Hitler’s book.

“And I never read Mein Kampf. They said, ‘Oh, Hitler said that’. In a much different way,” he said.

  • macrocephalic@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It’s easy to believe he’s never read Mein Kampf. It’s easy to believe he’s never read a book at all. He might have read his own book, maybe.

  • zeppo@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    “They don’t like it when I said that” is one of an entire genre of Trump “they” statements. Goes along with “they like to use that word” and other claims about “they”.

  • Chainweasel@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I totally believe that he hasn’t read it, or isn’t capable of reading it. But I bet someone read it to him.

  • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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    1 year ago

    Trump is a bad person and so is everyone who supports him.

    If you ever wondered what you would do if you found yourself in Germany in the 1930s, now you know.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Voting for trump doesn’t mean you want the president to commit atrocities against your fellow citizens, but it does mean that a politician promising to do so isn’t a deal breaker

  • aseriesoftubes@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    “And I never read Mein Kampf. They said, ‘Oh, Hitler said that’. In a much different way,” he said.

    Note how he never says that what Hitler said or did was bad, but rather that he said what Hitler said in a different way.

    I long for the days when something like this would be absolutely, unequivocally disqualifying.

    • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      Sounds like he’s thinks the problem is plagiarism rather than similarity of content.

    • TechyDad@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Seriously. We went from “you spelled potato wrong or screamed slightly weird so no presidency for you” to “you’re quoting Hitler? Well, no big deal. It looks like you’re still the frontrunner for your party.”

  • unreasonabro@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    People just refuse to get it. Racist speech is animal-level shit which is always the same even across languages and cultures. You don’t need to have read it before or even heard it before to reproduce it. If you find yourself calling someone dirty, calling them rats or rodents or vermin or pigs or whatever your local equivalent, or really just judging anyone based on your preferred stereotypes, you may be doing the thing you say you hate.

  • recapitated@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    You don’t need to read that book to know this stuff. He’s putting his ignorance of on full display. Ignorance of some of the most important AND MOST OBVIOUS and accessible historical periods …

    • PilferJynx@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s fascism 101. I wish people were more well read with history. The path these neo conservatives are going is going to end in suffering. What happens when your authoritarian leader rids themselves of their undesirables? They turn on you and make damn sure you can’t fight back and rebel just so they can stay in power. It’s always the same story.

  • kaffiene@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I believe him. I don’t think he’s ever read a book at all. Plenty of morons manage to be racist all by themselves.

    • _dev_null@lemmy.zxcvn.xyz
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      1 year ago

      I believe him, he’s too much of a dumbass to remember anything he’s read in a book.

      But the people that are feeding him the garbage he spews on the other hand…

  • june@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I was talking to my dad once and he practically quoted something Michael Savage had said like 2 weeks before (it had come up on a polisci class, I don’t listen to that drivel) and when I told him as much, he said he doesn’t listen to him. Which I believe.

    My point is, trump has definitely never read Mein Kampf, the man can’t read at all. But I’m confident that Mein Kampf has been parroted to him countless times.

  • a baby duck@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I have no trouble believing he didn’t read something. Maybe if there were an illustrated version…

  • Wrench@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Uh huh.

    The natural reaction if that were true would be to take a step back and re-evaluate your rhetoric and why you’re being compared to one of the most evil people in history.

    He’s read it cover to cover and loves it. That’s why the parallels are narrowing and becoming extremely clear. And why he’s not phased at the comparison.

    • modifier@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Believing Donald Trump has not read a book is easy, and this book is no exception. I have no problem believing he didn’t read it.

      Now Steven Miller on the other hand…

      • nightofmichelinstars@sopuli.xyz
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        I believe Stephen Miller has it memorized and creeps into Trump’s bedroom through the window while he’s sleeping and whispers it into his ear, and has been doing this every night for 6 years. I can picture this clearly.

      • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        Yup, this line probably wasn’t just stumbled upon randomly in his rotting brain, it was fed to him from one of his white nationalist speech goons. And it’s possible they too didn’t get it straight from Hitler but just read it on a neo-Nazi thought piece and found it compelling. Most white nationalists aren’t studying the foundational texts, but they all seem to know the same words.

  • GiddyGap@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I don’t think Trump reads many books overall. He probably just heard the quote somewhere and didn’t bother to check it before using it as his own. I’m writing this off as an unsurprising symptom of his lack of intelligence.

    • DragonTypeWyvern
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      1 year ago

      Trump, rather famously, can only be confirmed to have owned one book, and it is Mein Kampf.

      That said, I can indeed still believe he didn’t finish it, even if he remembers a couple quotes.