Militia Plots: A Rare but Serious Threat

The news shocked many Americans. The FBI announced they had thwarted an armed rightwing extremist militia plot to capture local government officials and hold them hostage.

You may think I’m talking about the October arrests of more than a dozen Michigan militia henchmen who were planning to abduct Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and put her on trial for the heinous crime of trying to save Michiganders from the coronavirus.

You’d be wrong if you did.

What I described above was a 1934 plot to seize control of the San Diego, CA city hall by a rightwing militia of quasi-Christian zealots called the Silver Shirts. Founded in 1933 by William Dudley Pelley (right), a one-time presidential candidate, the Silver Legion of America was patterned after the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s Black Shirts with the intention of establishing a “Christian Commonwealth” in America that would exclude all Jews and nonwhites.

The Silver Legion was a pro-fascist/Nazi group, one of several that existed in the U.S. in the 1930s. (See: American Fascists: A Forgotten History.) The local contingent of Silver Shirts concocted a plan to overthrow San Diego’s city government when they heard rumors that a group of communists was making similar plans (they weren’t). Two Marines from Camp Pendleton uncovered the plot when they infiltrated the Legion while investigating a series of weapons thefts from local military units.

Militia coup attempts like those thwarted in San Diego and Michigan might seem rare, but they aren’t unknown, and they are no laughing matter. They pose a very real threat to American citizens and to our democracy.

 The first antigovernment militia coup was the 1791 Whiskey Rebellion. Contrary to the belief of many radical gunowners that the Second Amendment was intended by our Founding Fathers to provide for the overthrow the government, the Whiskey Rebellion was quickly put down by a federal force led by then-President George Washington. (See: The Myths that Drive America’s Love of Guns.)

Anti-government militia plots have been the bane of American life, particularly since the 1990s. Several militia plots were uncovered during that decade. Members of a group called the North American Militia planned to bomb several targets in Michigan, including a federal building and an IRS building, and even discussed assassinating various government officials.

In 1997, members of a Missouri militia group planned a July 4 attack on Fort Hood, Texas, as the military base hosted an annual “Freedom Festival” attended by 50,000 men, women, and children. Fortunately, the FBI and the Missouri State Highway Patrol thwarted the plot. (See: The Militia Movement.) And in March 2011, the FBI charged nine members of an extremist militia group in Michigan with seditious conspiracy for plotting to attack law enforcement and spark an uprising against the government. (See: Domestic Terrorism: Focus on Militia Extremism.)

These rebellions were stopped or quickly suppressed before they started. But that doesn’t mean militia coups are not dangerous. In 1898, a white supremacist militia successfully overthrew the biracial city government of Wilmington, NC. There was no response to the deadly coup from local police, the state government, or Washington, DC. Its success is having unfortunate repercussions in today’s presidential politics, as Donald Trump keeps holding up that event as a model for future coups. (See:  The White Supremacist Coup that Trump Uses as a Template.)

Many Americans like to believe Timothy McVeigh’s April 19, 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building that killed 168 men, women, and children was the act of a “lone wolf” terrorist, Timothy McVeigh. In fact, in addition to McVeigh, three accomplices were also charged and tried for the crime. They had hoped the bombing would initiate an uprising that would take down the U.S. government. McVeigh was also a member of Christian Identity, a rightwing, white supremacist militia, which the FBI believed may have also been involved with the plot. (See: Were There More OKC Conspirators?: The Elohim City Connection.)

The last four years saw a rise in militia activity, thanks to the hateful and extremist rhetoric of Donald Trump. Armed militia members confronted peaceful Black Lives Matter protestors and marched to protest social distancing practices implemented by local governments in the wake of the coronavirus. Even before planning to abduct Gov. Whitmer, Michigan militia gunmen marched on the state capitol in an obvious threat to state lawmakers.

Not all rightwing coup plots were the work of militia movements. In 1933, a group of wealthy conservative bankers and financiers plotted to raise a private army and use it to overthrow the American government and establish a fascist dictatorship. Called The American Putsch and The Bankers Revolt, the plot was thwarted by the man they approached to lead their army. Smedley Butler, a retired Marine Corps major general and two-time recipient of the Medal of Honor, played along with the conspirators and collected evidence for the FBI. One of the alleged conspirators was a wealthy, pro-Nazi financier named Prescott Bush, father and grandfather of two U.S. presidents. (See: American Fascists: A Forgotten History.)

Unlike George Washington riding forth to preserve the country and democracy during the Whiskey Rebellion, Donald Trump has done nothing to mitigate the threat from these rightwing extremist groups. On the contrary, Trump appointed self-avowed pro-fascist, white nationalists like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller to his staff. He’s referred to white nationalist groups as “some good people” and told the Proud Boys to “stand by.” Trump has also called for armed militia members to act as “poll watchers” during the balloting. His failure to condemn these hate groups or their malicious plots only encourages them to continue their terrorist plots. More conspiracies will be on the horizon as long as this irresponsible president remains in power.

And despite the best efforts of law enforcement, the next plot may not be stopped in time.

Hitler and Trump: Two Men With a Single Mind?

 There is a new meme making the rounds on Twitter. It is a quote from a WWII psychological profile of Adolf Hitler commissioned by the Office of Strategic Services, forerunner of the CIA. The quote says, “His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.”

Obviously, the quote has gone viral because many people believe it applies as easily to Donald Trump as it does to Der Fuhrer. But a close reading of the full OSS report, “A Psychological Analysis of Adolf Hitler: His Life and Legend,” reveals many more similarities between the Nazi dictator and America’s wannabe fuhrer—so many that one could believe they were one and the same man.

Family: Both Hitler and Trump had authoritarian fathers. Alois Hitler was described by Hitler’s British-born nephew, William Patrick Hitler, as a drunk and tyrant who regularly beat his children. Trump’s father, Fred, was also an authoritarian parent, demanding daily reports from his wife on the children’s conduct and dictating disciplinary actions. According to Trump’s niece, Mary L. Trump, Fred pushed his eldest son, Fred Jr., to become as ruthless as he was so he could take over the family business. Fred Jr., however, wanted to be an airline pilot. After that, Fred Sr. “dismantled [Fred Jr.] by devaluing and degrading every aspect of his personality." Mary Trump blames her grandfather’s treatment of her father for the alcoholism that eventually killed him.

In Awe of Authority: Despite his media persona as a man of strength and resolute courage, Hitler was humbled by persons of authority. “From the weight of evidence, it seems certain that Hitler does lose his self-confidence badly when he is brought face-to-face with an accepted authority of high standing…” Yet, he was in constant search for a male figure he could use as a guide. “[T]hroughout his later life we find him searching for a strong masculine figure whom he can respect and emulate.” Hitler was drawn to strong, authoritarian historical figures such as Caesar, Napoleon, and Frederick the Great. According to the OSS report, Hitler was confused by leaders such as President Franklin D. Roosevelt who could lead a country and “still act like a gentleman” without “a great deal of name-calling, shouting, abusing, and threatening.”

It’s well known Trump has never met a dictator he didn’t submit to. Vladimir Putin of Russia, Xi Jinping of China, Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Kim Jong Un of North Korea are all authoritarian leaders Trump has praised and, in most cases, provided with preferential treatment over his own country. (See: Nine Notorious Dictators, Nine Shout-Outs From Donald Trump). At home, Trump openly suggests he wants to wield such power and attempts to do so by threatening and abusing anyone who stands up to him.

Young—Very Young—Women: Throughout his political career, Hitler portrayed himself as a man alone whose only mistress was Germany. Trump, on the other hand, has extravagantly exaggerated his prowess as a playboy. Neither depiction is true. Hitler, like Trump, had a penchant for very young, even underage girls.

Hitler’s first tryst was with Henny Hoffman, the daughter of his official photographer. Hitler first met Henny when she was nine. Henny was about 17 when her mother died and she began dating Hitler. He was in his thirties. “The relationship continued for some time until Henny … got drunk one night and began to talk about her relationship with Hitler,” according to the OSS report.

Henny was followed by a mysterious relationship with Geli Raubal, the daughter of Hitler’s half-sister, Angela. Geli lived with Hitler, 19 years her senior, in his Munich apartment. According to the OSS profile, Hitler spent lavishly on Geli and was extremely jealous of any men who paid attention to his niece. The affair did not end well. In September 1931, Hitler traveled to Nuremburg for a party meeting. The next day, Geli was found dead in his apartment of a gunshot wound to the lung. Hitler’s personal pistol laid next to her. Despite suspicions otherwise, her death was ruled a suicide.

Eva Braun was only 17 when she first caught Hitler’s eye, 23 years younger than Der Fuhrer. Theirs was Hitler’s longest relationship with a woman though he tried to hide it from the German people. It, too, was tumultuous, with Braun twice unsuccessfully attempting suicide. They finally married days before the German surrender, then committed suicide inside the Fuhrer Bunker.

Two of Trump’s wives were much younger than he when they married. Marla Trump was 17 years younger than Trump, and Melania 24 years younger. Trump frequently partied with Jeffrey Epstein, a financier and convicted child molester who was charged with sex trafficking minors in 2019 shortly before he allegedly committed suicide in a jail cell. In 2016, a woman accused Trump in a Manhattan federal court of raping her at one of Epstein’s parties when she was only 14 years old. The alleged victim dropped her suit after receiving multiple death threats from Trump supporters.

Trump has repeatedly made lascivious comments about his own daughter, Ivanka. During a 2003 Howard Stern Show interview, he said Ivanka had “the best body.” On the television show The View, Trump said, “I’ve said if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her." He also once allegedly asked a friend, “Is it wrong to be more sexually attracted to your own daughter than your wife?” Ivanka was 13 at the time.

Hitler and Trump may have shared another sexual aberration—golden showers. It has long been suspected that Russia’s Putin has video of Trump engaging in sexual urination with two prostitutes in a Moscow hotel. According to the OSS report, Hitler engaged in the same sex games. “His sexual pervasion has quite a different nature that few would have guessed,” it says. “… [A]n extreme form of masochism in which the individual derives sexual gratification from the act of having a woman urinate or defecate on him.”

Draining the Swamp and Other Christ-like Things: Donald Trump ran for office claiming only he could “drain the swamp” in Washington, DC. Hitler, too, came to power claiming he would drain the Berlin swamp. “When I came to Berlin … and looked at the traffic… the luxury, the perversion, the wanton display… disgusted me so thoroughly, that I was almost beside myself,” Hitler said in a speech. He saw himself as a new Messiah who would clean up Berlin the way Christ cleared the moneychangers from the temple.

A Messiah complex is something else both men share. “As time went on,” the OSS report says, “it became clearer (Hitler) was thinking of himself as the Messiah and that it was he who was destined to lead Germany to glory. … Comparisons between Christ and himself became more frequent.” Trump, too, frequently refers to himself with Biblical references, claiming he is “the Chosen One,” “the King of Israel,” and “the second coming of God.”

Unfortunately, both men’s e most loyal followers only encouraged such thinking. It was not unusual for Hitler’s most zealous followers—good Christians all—to hail him with “Heil Hitler, our Savior,” according to the OSS profile. Trump’s biggest group of supporters, white Christian evangelicals, have been all too willing to buy into his egomaniacal self-aggrandizement. A 2019 article in Psychology Today, reported, “a significant portion of his supporters literally believe the president was an answer to their prayers. He is regarded as something of a messiah, sent by God to protect a Christian nation.” (See: The Belief That Trump Is a Messiah Is Rampant and Dangerous.)

Know-It-Alls: Both Hitler’s and Trump’s fragile egos compelled them to act as know-it-alls when, in fact, a better description would be “know-nothings.” In 2018, Trump infamously referred to himself as “a very stable genius” and he repeatedly insists he knows more than his advisors and generals. (See: Everything Donald Trump is an Expert In, According to Him.) Even after contracting Covid-19 and receiving millions of dollars in specialized treatment, Trump still maintained he knew more about the virus than the health experts.

According to the OSS report, Ernst Rohm, head of the Nazi Brown Shirts, said of Hitler, “You try to tell him anything, he knows everything already.” Another of Hitler’s associates is quoted saying, “He has always been a poseur. He remembers things that he has heard and has a faculty for repeating them in such a way that a listener is lead to believe they are his own.”

Normal conversation never takes place around either man. “It is well-known he (Hitler) cannot carry on a normal conversation or discussion with people,” says the OSS profile. “Even if only one person is present, he must do all the talking.” Trump too must dominate every conversation, as seen in the first presidential debate. When he can’t, he sits with tightly cross arms and a scowl on his face.

For both men, this overconfidence in their own “genius” falls apart when confronted by an honest news media asking the kind of hardball questions reporters should ask of a country’s leadership. “Hitler becomes nervous and tends to lose his composure when he has to meet newspapermen,” says the OSS profile. Hitler was unable to answer questions for which he was not prepared and insisted any interviews questions be submitted in advance. “Even then he gives no opportunity to ask for further clarification … he immediately launches into a lengthy dissertation, which sometimes turns into a tirade. When this is finished, the interview is over.”

Trump has never been at ease with the media, criticizing their work as “liberal,” “left wing,” and “fake news.” He does not do well in press conferences when reporters are allowed to ask questions and so rarely holds them. When asked for clarification, he becomes surly and insults the person asking the question, and frequently simply ends the conference. In an August face-to-face broadcast interview Trump tried to convince Australian journalist Jonathan Swan with statistics that under his leadership the U.S. was controlling the coronavirus better than any other country. Swan then proved to Trump that he didn’t understand his own statistics. Trump was left befuddled and speechless. (See: Trump’s attacks on media are influencing Republicans’ attitudes toward press.)

Bring In the Clowns: Neither Hitler nor Trump were taken seriously at first. According to his OSS profile, “Earlier in his career the world watched him with amusement. Many people refused to take him seriously on ground that ‘he could not possibly last.'”

Despite the faux persona of a successful businessman that he built with the help of his pseudo-reality series “The Apprentice,” Trump was never taken seriously as an entrepreneur or a politician. Nowhere was this more evident than his hometown of New York where he was largely considered a clown. On Election Day in 2016, Trump was greeted with laughter and jeers as he arrived at his polling place.

Unfortunately, in both cases Hitler and Trump should have been taken seriously. Hitler’s reign of terror left Germany a country of smoking rubble, devastated by Allied bombings and artillery. In less than four years, Trump’s reign of error has cost the United States its world standing, its economy, and the lives of more than 200,000 American lives.