The MAGA Playbook: Retracing the Nazi Roadmap to Tyranny.
The time for polite hesitation is over. The parallels are no longer vague echoes; they are a checklist being ticked off with terrifying efficiency.
For years, historians were warned to avoid Nazi comparisons (often dismissed as 'Godwin's Law'), for fear of looking hysterical. We were told it was hyperbolic. But as we look around at the landscape of America in late 2025, those warnings feel like relics from a more innocent time.
The Trump administration’s actions this year have moved beyond mere populism into the systematic dismantling of democracy. By looking at the specific machinery of the Nazi takeover, the bureaucracy, the language, the culture war, and the religious complicity, we can see that the "MAGA Playbook" is simply a translation of the German original.
I. Gleichschaltung: The Purge of the "Deep State"
The Nazis did not destroy the German state overnight; they "coordinated" it. They called it Gleichschaltung, the process of bringing every aspect of society and government into line with the will of the Nazi Party. Their first major step was the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service in 1933, which allowed them to fire civil servants deemed "politically unreliable."
In 2025, we call it Schedule F.
Under the guise of "efficiency," the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, is executing a modern Gleichschaltung. By reclassifying tens of thousands of non-partisan experts, scientists, doctors, regulators, as political appointees, they have stripped the government of its institutional memory and conscience. Just as Hitler replaced independent jurists with party hacks, Trump is purging the "Deep State" (read: anyone who says "this is illegal") and replacing them with loyalists.
The appointment of Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence is the final nail in the coffin of independent analysis. The intelligence community, once a check on executive power, has been brought to heel. The message is clear: competence is irrelevant; loyalty to the Leader is everything.
II. Untermenschen and the "Poisoning of the Blood"
To commit atrocities, a regime must first convince the public that the victims are not human. The Nazis used the term Untermenschen (sub-humans) and described Jews as "vermin" who carried disease. Hitler wrote obsessively about the "contamination" of German blood.
Trump has revived this racial hygiene theory for the 21st century. His rhetoric about migrants "poisoning the blood of our country" is a direct lift from fascist text. He calls them "animals" and speaks of "bad genes," implying that criminality is a biological trait of the "foreign hordes."
This language serves a purpose: it justifies the unjustifiable. It paves the way for the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, invoked this year to bypass the courts and facilitate mass deportations without due process. It rationalises the horror of sending human beings to the "mega-prison" of CECOT in El Salvador, a policy so brutal that CBS News cancelled a 60 Minutes report on it rather than face the wrath of the White House. When people are reduced to "animals," cages become acceptable.
III. Lügenpresse and Entartete Kunst: The War on Truth and Culture
The Nazis knew that to control the future, they had to rewrite the past. They declared war on the Lügenpresse (lying press) and purged "degenerate art" (Entartete Kunst), works that challenged the myth of Aryan supremacy.
The Trump administration is waging an identical war. The cancellation of the 60 Minutes documentary was not an editorial decision; it was pre-emptive capitulation, proving the press has been cowed. But the attack goes deeper than news; it targets history itself.
The revived 1776 Commission and the Executive Order on "Restoring Truth and Sanity" are the modern equivalent of the Nazi book burnings. By erasing the history of slavery from museums, removing the "Scourged Back" photo, and scrubbing mentions of LGBTQ+ rights from national monuments, the regime is curating a fantasy version of America. They are systematically removing the "degenerate" truth to protect the fragile ego of White Christian Nationalism.
IV. The Führerprinzip and the Edifice Complex
Central to National Socialism was the Führerprinzip (Leader Principle), the idea that the Leader’s word is above all written law. This inevitably leads to the "Edifice Complex," where the dictator seeks immortality through stone and concrete.
Hitler wanted to rebuild Berlin as "Germania." Trump wants to rebrand America as "Trump."
The narcissism of the "Trump-Kennedy Center" (formerly JFK), the announcement of the "Trump-class" battleships, and the plans for a personal Arc de Triomphe in Washington D.C. are not just quirks of an egomaniac. They are a declaration of ownership. By plastering his name on the nation's infrastructure, he is signalling that the state and the man are one and the same. He is not a public servant; he is the landlord.
V. The False Prophets: "German Christians" and the Turning Point
Perhaps the most disturbing parallel lies in the spiritual corruption enabling this rise. In the 1930s, the "German Christians" (Deutsche Christen) movement sought to align Protestantism with Nazi ideology. They removed the "Jewish" Old Testament, placed the Swastika on the altar, and declared Hitler a messiah figure sent by God to save Germany.
Today, we see the exact same heresy in the Christian Nationalist movement. Organisations like Turning Point USA (TPUSA) and figures like Charlie Kirk have effectively created a state religion where the Sermon on the Mount is discarded in favour of "America First."
These groups have little to do with the teachings of Christ, a man who preached humility, charity, and love for the stranger. Instead, they preach a gospel of power, wealth, and retribution. When Charlie Kirk’s organisation attacks opponents and defends the "monetisation" of violence, they are not acting as disciples of Jesus; they are acting as the brownshirts of the spiritual world. They have traded the Cross for the MAGA hat, convincing millions that supporting a man who pays off porn stars and pardons drug traffickers (like Juan Orlando Hernández) is somehow a "divine mandate."
Darwinism in Action
The tragedy of this moment is not that it is happening in secret, but that it is happening in plain sight. The camps are open. The laws are passed. The history is being erased.
We are watching a perfect circle of stupidity, or perhaps, as I have said before, Darwinism in action. The very people cheering for this regime, the "MAGA sheep", are cheering for the destruction of the safeguards that protect them, too. They believe they are part of the elite "Big Club," but as history shows, the purge eventually comes for everyone.
The only things missing now are the gas chambers and crematoria. Everything else, the dehumanisation, the legal frameworks, the blind loyalty, and the spiritual rot, is already in place.
And we cannot say we weren't warned.