Picture by Bundesarchiv, 1936. Trump by Sambeet on Pixabay. Illustration, courtesy of the author.

CPAC 2021 is Trump’s First Nuremberg Rally

Trumpism just held its first ideological conference: we ought to be scared of its pro-Civil-War message and nazi symbolism.

Nicolas Carteron
7 min readFeb 28, 2021

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“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Maya Angelou’s wisdom has always evaded political commentators. For years before his elections, experts and journalists dismissed Trump as a joke. They didn’t take his words seriously; neither did they take the man. He was nothing but a buffoon that Washington and its power-brokers would tame should he ever be elected. Trump always showed who he was, and everybody ignored it.

It culminated in the insurrection of January 6, 2021. This day and the infamy it brought on the history of the United States was quintessentially Trumpian. Trump lied, inflamed his supporters’ spirits, riled up the very worst in them, and sent them marching on democracy, trampling laws, norms, and decency, killing five in the process. All the while, Trump was reportedly delighted to watch the insurrection unfold until he realised how low-class his mobsters really were. It doesn’t get more Trumpian than this.

The storming of the Capitol was what one might call a tipping point: those who had turned a blind eye for four eyes were eventually forced to take a stand. Would they support…

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Nicolas Carteron

I write about politics, business, society and culture on Medium. For startup/business content, check my newsletter: fundraisedd.substack.com