Chuck Todd on a Trump-Hitler Parallel

Chuck Todd was never my favorite TV pundit. His main talent was keep everything superficial and framed consistently within whatever the acceptable Washington Beltway narrative was at any given moment.

So I was almost impressed when I listened to his brief summary of how Hitler took over dictatorial power in Germany with the help of conservatives. He managed not to botch it! Good going, Chuck! (1)

He manages to get it right that leading German conservatives like President Paul Hindenburg and Franz von Papen were key to making Hitler Chancellor. He also mentions that the Nazi Party never got a majority in Parliament, even in 1932 when Hindenburg was practicing authoritarian rule already. Chuck even works in that in the last election in 1932 – which was the last even semi-free election in the Weimar Republic – Hitler’s NSDAP won fewer parliamentary seats that it did earlier in the year.

His description of the role of the conservative Center Party, which joined the Nazis to vote in the Enabling Act of 1933, could have been a little stronger. This is a capsule description of the Enabling Act from the Holocaust Encyclopedia of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. (2)

Chuck even manages not to mangle the historical parallel to Trump. Though not surprisingly he keeps it within the confines of what would be easily digestible for timid liberals.

There’s a worthwhile book about the month preceding Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor by Henry Ashby Turner, Jr., Hitler’s 30 Days to Power: January, 1933 that is a reminder of how deeply involved conservative, non-Nazi politicians were in the process. Blaine Taylor summarized it in a review of the book:

How this stunning turnabout of Hitler’s fortunes [in January 1933] occurred is the thrust of this excellent, engaging new book by the author of German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler and Germany from Partition to Reunification. Basically, the story centers around the chancellor who served just before Hitler – army General Kurt von Schleicher – and the trio of men who advised the aging President and World War I Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg. These advisers included Hindenburg’s son and military adjutant, Oskar (whom Hitler called “the personification of stupidity”), former Chancellor Franz von Papen and longtime presidential secretary Otto Meissner.

Brought to power and then dumped by his friend Schleicher, Papen vowed to get even. He cut a deal with Hitler in which the latter would become chancellor, and Papen would serve as vice chancellor. In 1934, Hitler had Schleicher shot during the famous Nazi blood purge, but Papen survived to become ambassador to Austria and then to Turkey. Tried at Nuremberg as a war criminal, he was acquitted. Oskar von Hindenburg and Meissner also survived the Third Reich and de-Nazification trials by the West German government.

The cardinal error of all these men in bringing Hitler to power was that they thought they could tame the radical Nazis by saddling them with the minutiae of actual government power. [my emphasis] (3)

Notes:

(1) Echoes Of 1930s Germany In Trump’s Second Term. The Chuck ToddCast YouTube channel 02/24/2026. <https://youtu.be/F09KgV7OYpE?si=Dib6SxSx7Q2hzUP1> (Accessed: 2026-25-02).

(2) The Enabling Act. <https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-enabling-act> (Accessed: 2026-25-02).

(3) Book Review: Hitler’s 30 Days to Power: January 1933. HistoryNet 08/12/2001. <https://historynet.com/book-review-hitlers-30-days-to-power-january-1933-henry-ashby-turner-ww2/> (Accessed: 2026-25-02).