The Germans have a word for what’s happening in Trump’s America
As the president lays waste to the rule of law, too many Americans are experiencing ‘Gleichschaltung” — being brought into line
A likeness of Donald Trump appears at a rally supporting USAid near the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 5, 2025 in Washington, DC. Photo by Getty Images
There’s a German word that describes the process the Nazi party used to take total control of all aspects of life: Gleichschaltung, which essentially means “bringing into line.” Much of this process involved violence: the rounding up, beating and murder of perceived and real enemies of the regime. An essential component of Gleichschaltung was cleansing the civil service of all who were deemed to be insufficiently loyal to Hitler, accomplished with incredible efficiency and without mercy.
Seven decades later, it’s American democracy that seems to be hurtling towards a precipice. Donald Trump’s shock-and-awe approach to government is raising dire questions about how many authoritarian assaults our 249-year-old republic can bear.
On Nov. 1 of last year, the University of Nebraska Press released my book Nazis At The Watercooler: War Criminals in German Government Agencies. It tells of how incriminated ex-Nazis infested the postwar German civil service. Four days after my book was published, Trump was elected for a second term as president. Like at least half the nation, I’m worryed about the next four years. German democracy survived the presence of ex-Nazis in government jobs after the war, but what about American democracy? Are we, under Trump, at the beginnings of an American-style Gleichschaltung? There are certainly some echoes of those times.
For the past month, Trump has fired off a ceaseless barrage of executive orders that either violate or at least challenge established law and the Constitution. Like der Führer, Trump undertook sweeping moves to dump government employees who might stand in his way. Trump is also firing salvos at the arts world. During the Third Reich, Hitler’s regime banished artworks deemed “degenerate” from German museums. After Trump purged the leadership of the John F. Kennedy Center for The Performing Arts, he selected himself as chairman and vowed that “woke” performances would not be permitted there.
Trump’s insistence that he is above the law is also classic authoritarianism, as is his portrayal of himself as America’s Messiah.
“He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, his personal propaganda platform.
An important feature of Gleichschaltung in Nazi Germany was intimidation and fear. Trump’s opponents are not being threatened with being sent off to concentration camps. But there’s no denying that the threat of retaliation – or falling out of favor with Trump – has turned the spines of congressional Republicans into Jello. Those who don’t agree with him stay silent because otherwise Trump would make sure they are primaried. Some fear for their lives.
Larry Diamond, Stanford University political sociologist and expert on authoritarianism, has postulated what he calls the “autocrat’s 12-step program.” During a recent interview with The New Yorker’s “The Political Scene” podcast, whose theme was “What Stops Democracy from Backsliding?” Diamond listed some of the hallmarks of an autocracy-in-the-making.
“You go down the list,” Diamond said, “the politicization of the courts, the dismissal of the media as fake news, the corporate pressure on media actors, which we’ve already seen evidenced in the withdrawal of editorial board endorsements for Kamala Harris by the LA Times and The Washington Post, the lawsuits against media enterprises, the effusion of deferential money to Trump’s inauguration from powerful corporate leaders.”
“It begins to look and smell like the acceleration of the autocrat’s playbook,” he said.
Diamond could have added Trump’s perfidious withdrawal of security details for personal enemies like John Bolton, Mark Milley and Anthony Fauci, his daily fusillade of lies, his embrace of ruthless despots like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, and political cheerleading by J.D. Vance and Elon Musk for a far-right party in Germany so extreme that it’s being watched by the country’s domestic intelligence agency. Also deserving to be added to the list are Musk and Steve Bannon’s public use of a stiff-armed gesture that sure looks like the old Hitlergruss, and Trump’s banishing of The Associated Press from events in the Oval Office and Air Force One.
For some perspective, let’s take a quick run through contemporary German history.
Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 was enabled by the Great Depression, by conservative politicians and CEOs who wrongly calculated they could manipulate der Führer, the Nazi leader’s use of spectacle at his massive rallies, and promises to make Germany great again. Hitler skillfully employed new technology – the radio and movie newsreels – to expand his allure. Trump’s done the same with 21st century technology: social media.
When Hitler became chancellor, the conditions were ripe for the Nazis to carry out their pre-planned Gleichschaltung in the spring of 1933. There was little to no resistance. Most Germans had already fallen into lockstep. Those who hadn’t were arrested. Multitudes were murdered.
Fast forward to the year 1953, eight years after the Nazis’ defeat. Of 50,000 West German federal government positions, about one-third were held by bureaucrats who had previously worked for the Nazi regime. Their presence had some negative impacts on the development of democracy, as described in my book. But these tainted civil servants never sought to topple the postwar republic.
Now, it’s American democracy that is in peril.
As Trump takes a sledgehammer to the rule of law, intimidates and bullies those who stand in his way, hacks away at press freedoms, guts government agencies, and continues to demonize those whom he sees as “woke,” who will dare to stand in his way?
Some signs of hope are beginning to surface. The resignation of 21 civil servants working in Musk’s DOGE operation is a show of courage and principle that, hopefully, may embolden others. At town halls in GOP-dominated districts, Republican members of Congress have been booed and jeered over Musk’s draconian cost-cutting, chaos in government agencies, and fear over Musk’s access to citizens’ private information. Attorneys general from Democrat-led states have had early success in getting courts to at least temporarily block some of Trump’s edicts, although it’s too early to tell what the ultimate fate of these judicial acts of resistance will be. Will any of the younger Trump appointees on the Supreme Court unite with the three liberal justices to prevent mortal damage to the Constitution and the rule of law? And if the justices rule against Trump, will he simply ignore them?
As divisions within German society deepened during the final days of the Weimar Republic, as civil discourse gave way to insults, threats and political violence, as faith in government plummeted, much of the populace turned their backs on democracy. They bought into Hitler’s claims that only he could solve Germany’s problems.
In Trump’s America, how far are we down the road to Gleichschaltung? Americans can still preserve the democracy we’ve enjoyed for 249 years, but only if we want to.
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