Could a president like Trump take over America?

You've seen the articles comparing Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler and the idea that Trump is plotting to take over America and rule as a dictator like Hitler did. Could this happen?

In order to answer this, we must first go back and see what Germany was like before the Nazi's took over. The situation in Germany during the 30's was grim. Germany had lost World War I but they were never invaded. Their soldiers just went home and the Germany government singed the Armistice, which was enforced at the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. There were millions of Germans unemployed. Germany was forced to make reparations payments that essentially bankrupted the country. The German Mark was devalued severely, causing hyperinflation. France took over the previous German industrial area of the Ruhr and Alsace-Lorraine. The Weimar Republic was faced with widespread civil unrest. The National Socialist German Workers' Party, better known as the Nazis, formatted unrest by promoting anti-Semitism and anti-Bolshevism. The Nazi party was able to command a pseudo-military unit that was called the Brown shirts (SA or Sturmabteilung). President von Hindenburg died and the cabinet had passed a law making the Chancellor the sole leader of the government. When Hitler became Chancellor, he literally was a dictator. Despite being called a republic, the Weimar Republic was called the Deutsches Reich, which essentially means German Empire. Yes, it did have an assembly, but when the Reichstag was burned down, it essentially removed any representation from the government and made Hitler a dictator.

America's government is not even close to the Weimar Republic and America's situation is not dire. The United States has come out of a bad recession and has achieved low unemployment and an economy that's improving with a stable if not actually strong dollar. American political parties are not as extreme as those in pre-Nazi Germany. There is no pseudo-military and the United States definitely didn't lose a war and owe reparations payments. The most important thing is that the United States government has checks and balances to prevent a take over, and there is no way one person could overcome this. Nixon was the last to try deception in the Watergate scandal, and he was forced to resign or be impeached. The only thing that a rogue president could do would be to instigate military action outside the country, but even that won't go too far without congressional monetary approval to sustain it.

The United States does have racial problems and latent anti-Semitism, but it is no way as bad as what existed at the time of the Nazis. No one is going to bring out the swastikas and throw people into concentration camps. Yes, I know that the United States did that with Japanese Americans during World War II, but there is not going to be another war like that. It's too damned expensive.

The United States is also not going to build a wall across the border with Mexico. That would be too expensive and Mexico is not going to pay for it. That's just a stupid idea.

Once one gets behind the rhetoric and looks at the person, one unearths a different view. Donald Trump was born in America, on June 14, 1946 in Queens, New York. Hid father was a real estate developer, which is the reason that Donald got into it. Basically, Donald Trump has been pursuing a career in real estate both successfully and unsuccessfully for most of his public career. He allegedly is currently worth about 4 billion. The main problem with him is that his stance on issues is not rigid and he has changed his opinions several times. He's basically a populist and a nationalist. He loves being admired and revered. He stands for strict immigration and a free trade, but he emphasizes that the wants the trade deals to be fair. Basically, he has mostly Republican Party views. He did run for president in 2000 as a Reform Party candidate. He is criticized for being racist against Mexicans and Muslims, but his motivations are not because of racial hatred but mostly for strategic reasons. He claims illegal immigrants from South America are taking American jobs and represent a crime threat. He's against allowing Muslims to immigrate to America because he thinks they're all terrorists. These are the views of many people, especially in the lower classes. Why they like Trump is a mystery. He has some crazy ideas and strange ways of expressing himself, but then again, he likes to be a tough guy. To me he talks like a New Yorker, but he definitely doesn't have the oratorical skills of an Adolph Hitler.

Adolph Hitler was completely different. He studied art and fought in World War I. His anti-Semitic views were very clear, but he wasn't the only German with that problem. He accused Jews for putting Germany into the critical situation it was in at the end of World War I, and he saw them as a convenient scapegoat when he rose to power. Basically, Hitler did poorly in school and ended up living a bohemian lifestyle in Vienne, which was a hotbed of religious prejudice and racism. When he came out of World War I to Munich, he had no formal education or real job experience. In other words, he is as different from Trump as one could get. Essentially, Hitler was not a stable person. In fact, it's believed that he had a Messianic complex and suffered from mental issues. I don't think that Trump has these problems; although, I'm not a psychiatrist.

Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 in Austria to Alois Hitler, a customs Bureau worker, and Kiara Pöizi and raised as a Catholic but soon broke from the church and became an atheist. Trump is an avowed Christian, and states that fact in public.

There is some credible evidence that Hitler had Jewish heritage on his mother's side despite his avowed anti-Semitism. It's understandable why Hitler acquired a strong nationalist opinion because this was common for Austrians. When he fought in World War I, he never advanced in rank above a corporal because he did not exhibit the Prussian ideal in his appearance. He was slovenly. He became a 'runner', and ended up being temporarily blinded in a gas attack. He was also hospitalized for a thigh wound. It made sense that he immediately joined the National Socialist German Workers Party after the war. Hitler's messianic oratorical abilities contributed to his meteoric rise to power.

Both Hitler and Trump are essentially demagogues, but Hitler's oratorical skills are much superior. He was a master at the ability of appearing as a savior of Germany. Trump just spouts off about restoring America's ideals.
I don't think that Trump is like Hitler in many ways. He is cruder and not as polished as Hitler. He is an opportunist who likes to be in limelight. How he would perform as a president is unknown, but one thing is certain: he's not going to make America a dictatorship. The founding fathers were smart enough to keep that from happening, and the proof is in the pudding. There were some really strange presidents like Andrew Jackson or even Teddy Roosevelt that could have tried to take over the country. Some even thought that Franklin D. Roosevelt was trying that with his four terms as president, especially since he loaded the Supreme Court with liberal judges and got many socialist laws enacted. And yet, America goes on with a well-established government that is designed not to change all that much.

To answer the question, the answer is yes there is possibility but it's very small. I don't see anything that dramatic happening. If anything, Donald Trump is the epitome of a successful American businessman, and it's easy to understand why he would want to see America stay as a country of opportunity. Hopefully, he'll become less abrasive and bombastic and tell us what his plans for America really are.

As you might guess, I'm being pragmatic here, but I am not promoting any candidate for president. As far as I am concerned it's up to the voters. That's the way it should be, even if it's wrong.

Thanks for reading.