Trump Is Not Another Hitler. That's The Problem.

[ihaveaquestion]

https://substack.com/home/post/p-190869720

The comparison is tempting. The reality is more dangerous and far less predictable.

Frank George, Ph.D.
Mar 29, 2026

People keep asking me:
“Is Trump another Hitler?”

That’s a reasonable question. But it obscures a more important one:

What type of authoritarian threat are we dealing with?

Because if you misread the threat, you misread the risk.

A Malignant Narcissist at the center

Shared Traits: Trump and Hitler

Both Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump show all of the core features of malignant narcissism.

Devaluation Of The Other — The Scapegoat

They both rely on dehumanization. Scapegoats are central — Jews in Hitler’s case, immigrants and perceived enemies in Trump’s. The language overlaps: “vermin,” “animals.” This isn’t just insult. It’s a psychological mechanism: remove humanity, remove empathy, justify harm and cruelty.
Sadism

Hitler embedded cruelty into his ideology — institutionalized sadism. Not so much enjoyment of the domination itself, but enjoyment of the resulting ideological fervor — an Institutional Sadism. This is similar to Stephen Miller.