Nazi Germany’s pre-war
expansionism was characterized by a step-by-step erosion of the
international order. Since returning to office Trump actions have been
following a similar pattern.
By Fareed Khan
A version of this article can be found on Substack.
This military action, executed without the approval of the US Congress or sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council, has drawn sharp international condemnation and ignited debates about parallels to historical aggression in the 1930s. Critics argue that the move mirrors the expansionist tactics of Nazi Germany in the lead-up to World War Two, where Adolf Hitler annexed Austria in 1938 and the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia later that year, under pretexts of protecting Germans and restoring national greatness.
While the contexts differ—the US operation in Venezuela was justified as targeting a “narco-state” rather than ethnic unification—the underlying pattern of unilateral territorial intervention, disregard for sovereignty and international law, and rhetorical emphasis on national security and an American revival evokes eerie similarities to Hitler’s justifications for his actions. As Trump escalates threats against other nations, including Greenland, Canada, Panama, and Iran, the world faces its most precarious moment since the 1930s, with US actions destabilizing global norms and risking broader conflict in the same manner that Germany did in the 1930s.
Nazi Germany’s pre-war expansions were characterized by a step-by-step erosion of the international order, beginning with an exit from the League of Nations in October 1933 and the Anschluss of Austria in March 1938. Hitler portrayed the former as way to get out from under the domination of World War One victors, and the latter as a voluntary union to protect German-speaking populations that was enforced through military pressure and propaganda. Similarly, the annexation of the Sudetenland in October 1938 followed the Munich Agreement, where European powers appeased Hitler to avoid war, allowing Germany to seize territory under the guise of resolving ethnic grievances. All these moves were part of Hitler’s broader vision to “Make Germany Great Again,” a slogan that emphasized racial purity, German nationalism, economic revival, and territorial expansion.
Trump’s Venezuela operation, while not a full annexation, involved airstrikes and the abduction of a sitting head of state, with a subsequent announcement that the US would oversee Venezuelan affairs, including plans to invest in extracting its oil reserves, which he said were “stolen” from American interests. Trump has justified this by labeling Maduro a “narco-terrorist” and emphasizing benefits like reduced drug flows and energy security for America. This echoes Hitler’s pretexts, where perceived threats to Germany justified aggression. Furthermore, Trump’s threats since returning to office to “take back” the Panama Canal—citing violations of neutrality and Chinese influence—resemble Hitler’s claims on the Sudetenland as rightful German territory. In December 2025, Trump reiterated plans to reclaim the canal, which the US handed over to Panama in 1999, drawing rebukes from its government. Such rhetoric undermines post-World War Two treaties and norms, much like Hitler disregarded the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, to which Germany acceded in 1919.
At the helm of these actions is a leader whose style and ideology invites direct comparisons to Hitler. Trump, like the Nazi leader, positions himself as an infallible figure with a divine mandate to restore national glory to the US. Hitler’s cult of personality revolved around his self-proclaimed role as the savior of Germany, promising to “Make Germany Great Again” after the humiliations of World War One. Trump has echoed this with his “Make America Great Again” mantra, surviving an assassination attempt in 2024 that he attributes to divine intervention, which reinforced his messianic self-image. Both Hitler and Trump vilified minorities and immigrants as threats to the nation’s purity and security. In the US, minorities—particularly Latinos—have been targeted through inflammatory rhetoric and racist policies. Trump has described immigrants as “poisoning the blood” of America, a phrase reminiscent of Nazi eugenics propaganda. This has manifested in aggressive immigration enforcement, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operates with expanded powers, detaining thousands, including US citizens, in operations critics liken to actions of an “American Gestapo.”
Reports indicate that ICE has detained over 170 innocent Americans in 2025, with the vast majority being detained based on racial profiling. A Supreme Court decision in September 2025 lifted restrictions on ICE using race, language, and employment as factors in stops, enabling sweeps that echo Nazi roundups of “undesirables.” Thousands of US residents have been sent to detention centers, including facilities like Fort Bliss, where accounts of abuse and inhumane conditions have surfaced. These actions sideline due process, much like Hitler’s Enabling Act of 1933, which centralized power and targeted Jews and political opponents.
Trump’s consolidation of power further amplifies these parallels, sidelining democratic institutions in ways that recall the Nazi regime’s erosion of checks and balances. In Germany, Hitler used the Reichstag Fire Decree to suspend civil liberties and the Enabling Act to bypass the Reichstag, allowing dictatorial rule. In the US, Trump has bypassed Congress and issued over 400 executive orders in 2025 alone, more than any president in modern history, covering tariffs, immigration, and federal restructuring, essentially governing by decree, as would a dictator. Congress has been effectively marginalized, with Trump vetoing Two bipartisan bills in December 2025, including one for water infrastructure in Colorado, asserting executive prerogative. Key decisions, such as the Venezuela operation and strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in June 2025, were made without legislative consultation, drawing criticism for violating the War Powers Resolution.
The Supreme Court, with a 6-3 conservative majority including three Trump appointees, has consistently sided with the administration, overturning blocks by lower courts on policies like mass deportations, federal employee firings, and protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants under Temporary Protected Status. This has enabled the restructuring of critical agencies and placed limits on nationwide court injunctions, consolidating executive authority, further empowering Trump to execute his anti-democratic agenda. Lower courts have been bypassed through the “shadow docket,” where the Supreme Court has granted emergency relief in about 90% of Trump cases as of late 2025. These judicial wins echo how Hitler stacked the German judiciary to give legitimacy to his regime, and pursue his agenda.
Internationally, US actions under Trump exploit America’s veto power in the UN Security Council, allowing violations of the UN Charter with impunity, much like Germany’s withdrawal from the League of Nations gave Hitler license to violate of the League’s rules based order with impunity. The attack on Venezuela has been condemned globally, with historians decrying the “naked imperialism” mimicking Nazi Germany’s actions in the 1930s, violating sovereignty norms established post-World War Two, to prevent another global conflagration.
Trump’s threats extend beyond Venezuela as he has renewed calls to annex Greenland for “national security,” prompting Denmark’s prime minister to calling or him to “stop the threats.” He has mused about making Canada the 51st state since shortly after his election in November 2024, and “taking back” the Panama Canal. Additionally, in 2025, US forces bombed Iranian nuclear sites escalating tensions in the Middle-East and setting back Iran’s program by years, while not ruling out further strikes. Such actions without a forceful response destabilizes entire regions, and possibly the world, echoing how Hitler’s annexations without international pushback emboldened aggression, leading to the invasion of Poland in 1939 and World War Two.
The cumulative effects of US actions places the world on its most dangerous path since the 1930s. Back then, appeasement allowed fascism to spread unchecked, eventually resulting in more than 70 million deaths. Today, American unilateralism risks similar escalation, with Russia’s and China’s condemnations of the Venezuela action possibly provoking proxy conflicts, while threats to Iran and Cuba heighten regional war risks.
Domestically, policies targeting minorities and sidelining government institutions erode democracy, fostering division and potential political unrest. Historians warn that Trump’s administration exhibits “increasingly relevant” parallels to the rise of Nazism in Germany, including attacks on truth and the legitimacy of public institutions. As Former vice-president Al Gore noted in 2025, lessons from Nazi Germany’s “emergent evil” apply to efforts by the Trump administration to distort reality and consolidate power in the US. Without robust international pushback and strong domestic resistance, these actions could unravel the post-1945 order, inviting calamity on a scale not seen since World War Two.
While the US under Trump is not identical to Nazi Germany—lacking the same scale of war crimes or totalitarianism—the patterns of expansionism, leader worship, targeting minorities, attacks on the institutions of democracy, and international impunity are alarmingly similar. The US attack on Venezuela, coupled with broader threats to other nations, makes the US a destabilizing force that imperils global peace. The world must heed lessons from the 1930s and 1940s before the violent history of that era repeats itself and we all suffer.
© 2026 The View From Here. © 2026 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.
A version of this article can be found on Substack.
In the early hours of January 3, 2026, American military forces launched airstrikes
across northern Venezuela, capturing President Nicolás Maduro and his
wife, Cilia Flores, in an operation codenamed “Absolute Resolve.”
President Donald Trump swiftly declared that the United States would
“run the country” until a “safe, proper, and judicious” transition could
occur, framing the action as a necessary strike against
narco-trafficking, and critical to the security of the US.
This military action, executed without the approval of the US Congress or sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council, has drawn sharp international condemnation and ignited debates about parallels to historical aggression in the 1930s. Critics argue that the move mirrors the expansionist tactics of Nazi Germany in the lead-up to World War Two, where Adolf Hitler annexed Austria in 1938 and the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia later that year, under pretexts of protecting Germans and restoring national greatness.
While the contexts differ—the US operation in Venezuela was justified as targeting a “narco-state” rather than ethnic unification—the underlying pattern of unilateral territorial intervention, disregard for sovereignty and international law, and rhetorical emphasis on national security and an American revival evokes eerie similarities to Hitler’s justifications for his actions. As Trump escalates threats against other nations, including Greenland, Canada, Panama, and Iran, the world faces its most precarious moment since the 1930s, with US actions destabilizing global norms and risking broader conflict in the same manner that Germany did in the 1930s.
Nazi Germany’s pre-war expansions were characterized by a step-by-step erosion of the international order, beginning with an exit from the League of Nations in October 1933 and the Anschluss of Austria in March 1938. Hitler portrayed the former as way to get out from under the domination of World War One victors, and the latter as a voluntary union to protect German-speaking populations that was enforced through military pressure and propaganda. Similarly, the annexation of the Sudetenland in October 1938 followed the Munich Agreement, where European powers appeased Hitler to avoid war, allowing Germany to seize territory under the guise of resolving ethnic grievances. All these moves were part of Hitler’s broader vision to “Make Germany Great Again,” a slogan that emphasized racial purity, German nationalism, economic revival, and territorial expansion.
Trump’s Venezuela operation, while not a full annexation, involved airstrikes and the abduction of a sitting head of state, with a subsequent announcement that the US would oversee Venezuelan affairs, including plans to invest in extracting its oil reserves, which he said were “stolen” from American interests. Trump has justified this by labeling Maduro a “narco-terrorist” and emphasizing benefits like reduced drug flows and energy security for America. This echoes Hitler’s pretexts, where perceived threats to Germany justified aggression. Furthermore, Trump’s threats since returning to office to “take back” the Panama Canal—citing violations of neutrality and Chinese influence—resemble Hitler’s claims on the Sudetenland as rightful German territory. In December 2025, Trump reiterated plans to reclaim the canal, which the US handed over to Panama in 1999, drawing rebukes from its government. Such rhetoric undermines post-World War Two treaties and norms, much like Hitler disregarded the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, to which Germany acceded in 1919.
At the helm of these actions is a leader whose style and ideology invites direct comparisons to Hitler. Trump, like the Nazi leader, positions himself as an infallible figure with a divine mandate to restore national glory to the US. Hitler’s cult of personality revolved around his self-proclaimed role as the savior of Germany, promising to “Make Germany Great Again” after the humiliations of World War One. Trump has echoed this with his “Make America Great Again” mantra, surviving an assassination attempt in 2024 that he attributes to divine intervention, which reinforced his messianic self-image. Both Hitler and Trump vilified minorities and immigrants as threats to the nation’s purity and security. In the US, minorities—particularly Latinos—have been targeted through inflammatory rhetoric and racist policies. Trump has described immigrants as “poisoning the blood” of America, a phrase reminiscent of Nazi eugenics propaganda. This has manifested in aggressive immigration enforcement, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operates with expanded powers, detaining thousands, including US citizens, in operations critics liken to actions of an “American Gestapo.”
Reports indicate that ICE has detained over 170 innocent Americans in 2025, with the vast majority being detained based on racial profiling. A Supreme Court decision in September 2025 lifted restrictions on ICE using race, language, and employment as factors in stops, enabling sweeps that echo Nazi roundups of “undesirables.” Thousands of US residents have been sent to detention centers, including facilities like Fort Bliss, where accounts of abuse and inhumane conditions have surfaced. These actions sideline due process, much like Hitler’s Enabling Act of 1933, which centralized power and targeted Jews and political opponents.
Trump’s consolidation of power further amplifies these parallels, sidelining democratic institutions in ways that recall the Nazi regime’s erosion of checks and balances. In Germany, Hitler used the Reichstag Fire Decree to suspend civil liberties and the Enabling Act to bypass the Reichstag, allowing dictatorial rule. In the US, Trump has bypassed Congress and issued over 400 executive orders in 2025 alone, more than any president in modern history, covering tariffs, immigration, and federal restructuring, essentially governing by decree, as would a dictator. Congress has been effectively marginalized, with Trump vetoing Two bipartisan bills in December 2025, including one for water infrastructure in Colorado, asserting executive prerogative. Key decisions, such as the Venezuela operation and strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in June 2025, were made without legislative consultation, drawing criticism for violating the War Powers Resolution.
The Supreme Court, with a 6-3 conservative majority including three Trump appointees, has consistently sided with the administration, overturning blocks by lower courts on policies like mass deportations, federal employee firings, and protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants under Temporary Protected Status. This has enabled the restructuring of critical agencies and placed limits on nationwide court injunctions, consolidating executive authority, further empowering Trump to execute his anti-democratic agenda. Lower courts have been bypassed through the “shadow docket,” where the Supreme Court has granted emergency relief in about 90% of Trump cases as of late 2025. These judicial wins echo how Hitler stacked the German judiciary to give legitimacy to his regime, and pursue his agenda.
Internationally, US actions under Trump exploit America’s veto power in the UN Security Council, allowing violations of the UN Charter with impunity, much like Germany’s withdrawal from the League of Nations gave Hitler license to violate of the League’s rules based order with impunity. The attack on Venezuela has been condemned globally, with historians decrying the “naked imperialism” mimicking Nazi Germany’s actions in the 1930s, violating sovereignty norms established post-World War Two, to prevent another global conflagration.
Trump’s threats extend beyond Venezuela as he has renewed calls to annex Greenland for “national security,” prompting Denmark’s prime minister to calling or him to “stop the threats.” He has mused about making Canada the 51st state since shortly after his election in November 2024, and “taking back” the Panama Canal. Additionally, in 2025, US forces bombed Iranian nuclear sites escalating tensions in the Middle-East and setting back Iran’s program by years, while not ruling out further strikes. Such actions without a forceful response destabilizes entire regions, and possibly the world, echoing how Hitler’s annexations without international pushback emboldened aggression, leading to the invasion of Poland in 1939 and World War Two.
The cumulative effects of US actions places the world on its most dangerous path since the 1930s. Back then, appeasement allowed fascism to spread unchecked, eventually resulting in more than 70 million deaths. Today, American unilateralism risks similar escalation, with Russia’s and China’s condemnations of the Venezuela action possibly provoking proxy conflicts, while threats to Iran and Cuba heighten regional war risks.
Domestically, policies targeting minorities and sidelining government institutions erode democracy, fostering division and potential political unrest. Historians warn that Trump’s administration exhibits “increasingly relevant” parallels to the rise of Nazism in Germany, including attacks on truth and the legitimacy of public institutions. As Former vice-president Al Gore noted in 2025, lessons from Nazi Germany’s “emergent evil” apply to efforts by the Trump administration to distort reality and consolidate power in the US. Without robust international pushback and strong domestic resistance, these actions could unravel the post-1945 order, inviting calamity on a scale not seen since World War Two.
While the US under Trump is not identical to Nazi Germany—lacking the same scale of war crimes or totalitarianism—the patterns of expansionism, leader worship, targeting minorities, attacks on the institutions of democracy, and international impunity are alarmingly similar. The US attack on Venezuela, coupled with broader threats to other nations, makes the US a destabilizing force that imperils global peace. The world must heed lessons from the 1930s and 1940s before the violent history of that era repeats itself and we all suffer.
© 2026 The View From Here. © 2026 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.
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