Don’t Come to the Cabaret....

As I write this (19 September 2025) Donald Trump is waging war against late night American television. It has been a lot like German cabaret in the years before Hitler, with all sorts of political commentary. The Nazis didn’t like it. As I write in my book Bending Spines:

“The political cabaret had a prominent role in Germany before 1933. The wit was biting and vivid, with little sacred. Many artists were Jewish, leftist, or both, and left the profession or the country. Goebbels hoped that the urge for self-preservation would keep the remaining performers in line, but that did not turn out to be the case. The more subtle the performers became,the more effective their lines could be. The classic example is Berlin’s Werner Finck, who after his cabaret reopened after difficulties with a previous show said: “We’re not too open, but we’re open enough to just barely stay open.”

Goebbels introduced “positive cabaret,” which didn’t work out too well. In 1937 he tried to ban carabet, but it somehow continued very nervously into the war years The point is that despots, dictators, and those who imitate them hate to be ridiculed. Donald Trump’s fragile ego hates being laughed at, and it is not suprising that he wants to get rid of late night television comedians.

Hitler (or Trump) Is Always Right

There are a distressing number of vivid parallels between Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump. As I have said before, they differ in that Hitler had principles (bad ones, but principles nonetheless), whereas Trump will simply do whatever is in his own best interest.

That being said, their respective followers are followers for similar reasons. They want a secular Messiah who has their absolute trust. It is interesting that, disregarding the biblical advice on putting trust in princes (don't....), many Christians both then and now were and are happy to give their leader the trust they allegedly owed only to God. This first picture is a 1941 Nazi poster that announces: “The Führer is always right.”

And this one is from the MAGA hattery.

In both cases, the message is that the leader is infallible. This theory has never turned out well. The irrationality of the thinking is clear from the recent MAGA dissention about the Epstein files. The Trump minions who hold power at least had the integrity to announce that despite their previous fulminations, there was no deep state conspiracy. MAGA faithful were alarmed. Some even began to doubt the divinity of Donald Trump.

They were, however, troubled not in the least by Trump’s determined opposition to all Christian virtues. In other words, doubting their faith in things that are not so is much worse than ignoring the Christianity many claim to adhere to.