Where Else Have We Seen This? Part II

During the 1930s a bunch of industrialists supported Hitler just like now with the billionaire oligarchs supporting Trump! In LinkedIn  there is an article about "The men who financed Adolf Hitler's rise to power" in it they write,

But all the back and forth about the Anschluss with Austria isn’t really Vuillard’s main concern at all. The Order of the Day opens and closes with Vuillard’s observations about the twenty-four men who attended a secret meeting with Adolf Hitler on February 20, 1933. They were the cream of Germany industry and finance, men such as Gustav Krupp (1870-1950), Wilhelm von Opel (1871-1948), and Albert Vögler (1877-1945). They had come together at the request of the Führer‘s economic adviser, Hjalmar Schacht (1877-1970), to hear an appeal for campaign contributions from Hermann Göring and Adolf Hitler himself.

And they gave. Oh, yes, they gave, quite enough to pave the way for the little corporal to gain enough electoral support and soon proclaim himself dictator. This was “nothing more for the Krupps, Opels, and Siemenses than a perfectly ordinary business transaction, your basic fund-raising.” For these were the men who led the firms that had powered Germany into the forefront of the European economy: BASF, Bayer, Agfa, Opel, IG Farben, Siemens, Allianz, Telefunken. It was they, as much as Adolf Hitler, who eased Germany toward the Anschluss with Austria.

Back to the future... Trump's billionaire oligarchs are also bankrolling him for some choice cabinet positions! History Extra from 2019 writes...

By the early 1930s, the Nazi movement was already marked by violence as political disputes were being fought out in the streets. Yet despite this, and the stark differences in style to the existing conservative parties, there was a surprising amount of common ground between the two. “There’s a grey zone between Nazi and non-Nazi, and if you look at the conservative elites, you will find that around 90 per cent of them share close to all the negative aims of the Nazis,” says Malinowski. “What the Nazis shared most with the power elites – be they military, industry, land owners, judges, university professors – is a language of fear, of hatred, of disdain for democracy, for the republic, communists, Jews, trade unions, modern art. It was a broad set of things that they did not want and I think it is important to understand that the basis on which the Nazis and conservatives met was a basis of negativity.”

Hmm... 

Rather than seeking to combat Nazism, the elite hoped to co-opt Hitler, with chancellor Franz von Papen offering him the role of vice-chancellor. “A metaphor these people used a lot – because most of them were noble horsemen – is that they wanted to ride the Nazi movement like a horse,” says Malinowski. “They would use the momentum and the political potential of the Nazi party but still keep it at bay. The idea of ‘framing’ – to control Hitler, to keep him in a conservative ‘frame’ – was the key concept in 1933. And it was a moment of deep misery in the history of German conservatism.”

I don't know about you but this sounds like Deja Vu all over again!

Who are the billionaires, business leaders who might shape a second Trump presidency?

USA Today

By Daniel de Visé

November 6, 2024

Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, formed a high-profile partnership with Donald Trump on the eve of his election to a second term as president. 

Musk spoke at Trump rallies and offered controversial $1 million giveaways to voters in swing states in an attempt to drum up support for the Republican candidate. Trump publicly offered Musk a leadership position in his second administration. 

Many other billionaires and industry titans have thrown their support behind Trump. Now, some could be in the running for cabinet posts, while others may wield influence behind the scenes. 

Are we repeating history?