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It has been nearly seventy-five years since the death of Adolf Hitler, and the Nazi Führer has never been more alive. The rise of right-wing political movements across the Western world has raised concerns among observers in Europe and North America that the specter of Nazism, once thought consigned to the past, has reemerged in the present. These fears have been especially acute in the United States. Ever since Donald Trump first announced his candidacy for the presidency in June 2015—and especially since his Electoral College victory in 2016—journalists, scholars, and other commentators have flooded the American media with op-eds, articles, and books trying to make sense of his unexpected political success.1 In pursuing this task, observers have proposed a wide range of historical analogies to explain the Trump phenomenon. Not surprisingly, they have disagreed profoundly on which comparisons are the most suitable. One group has contended that Trump's political triumph bears a worrisome resemblance to interwar European fascism, especially the National Socialist movement of Adolf Hitler. By contrast, a second group has rejected this comparison and sought analogies for Trump in other historical figures from European and US history. The debate has raged across the popular media and academia for the better part of four years. Yet although countless commentators have participated in the discussion, few have surveyed its course or assessed its results.2
This article seeks to rectify this oversight by providing a comprehensive analysis of the debate from its origins up to the present day. Undertaking this task is especially timely. Although the debate is ongoing, it has lasted long enough and left a sufficiently long paper trail to permit an analytical assessment of its key features. Undertaking such an analysis is also timely in light of the likelihood that the debate has peaked. Although it may seem counterintuitive given the continuing ubiquity of Nazi comparisons in present-day American political discourse, there is evidence that we may have passed the debate's apex. For one thing, the number of newspaper and journal articles employing Trump/Hitler comparisons in the English language press has declined since reaching a high point in 2017; indeed, there has been a yearly average decline of around 20 percent over the past two years.3 Secondly, there...