Dispatches of alarm and hope, on politics and society, democracy and justice. Because silence is not an option. We may read and write alone, but we drive change together. Gold, Greed and Cowardice Trump's corporate and billionaire supporters are emboldening him as he pursues his path of destruction. History proves the future does not bode well for them. Steven Beschloss Oct 24 Forget governance. Trump spent his time with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte Wednesday showing off his ballroom rendering. (Photo by Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images) In August of 1947, General Telford Taylor, a chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, stood before a collection of corporate executives who had facilitated the rise of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime and shared blame for the destruction of Europe and tens of millions of lives. The two dozen defendants included leaders of Fried. Krupp AG, a major arms manufacturer, as well as IG Farben, the largest corporation in Europe, which produced everything from Bayer aspirin to the poison Zyklon B used in Nazi gas chambers. A year earlier, the international military tribunal had convicted 19 of 22 high-profile Nazi leaders and hanged 10 of them. Hermann Göring, Hitler’s second-in-command, swallowed a deadly cyanide capsule just hours before he too faced the executioner’s noose. Taylor’s sober words from 1947 still echo now. “The grave charges in this case have not been laid before the tribunal casually or unreflectingly,” he began. “The indictment accuses these men of major responsibility for visiting upon mankind the most searing and catastrophic war in modern history. It accuses them of wholesale enslavement, plunder and murder.” Taylor, a lawyer and native of Schenectady, New York, went on: The face of this continent is hideously scarred and its voice is a bitter snarl; everywhere man’s work lies in ruins and the standard of human existence is purgatorial…God gave us this earth to be cultivated as a garden, not to be turned into a stinking pit of rubble and refuse…The crimes with which these men are charged were not committed in rage or under the stress of sudden temptation; they were not the slips or lapses of otherwise well-ordered men. One does not build a stupendous war machine in a fit of passion, nor an Auschwitz factory during a passing spasm of brutality. What these men did was done with the utmost deliberation and would, I venture to surmise, be repeated should the opportunity to recur. There will be no mistaking the ruthless purposefulness with which the defendants embarked upon their course of conduct. Diarmuid Jeffreys, author of the 2010 book, Hell’s Cartel: IG Farben and the Making of Hitler’s War Machine, described the accused as exuding “an air of affronted authority.” These were men of power and wealth, certain of their own significance. They prioritized their business interests, and did not falter in supporting the extreme cruelty, antisemitism and mass murder of the Nazi agenda. Gen. Taylor had more to say, what author Jeffreys describes as “the heart of their case, summing up the motives, intentions, and culpability of the accused and the necessity of bringing them to justice.” In this arrogant and supremely criminal adventure, the defendants were eager and leading participants. They joined in stamping out the flame of liberty, and in subjecting the German people to the monstrous, grinding tyranny of the Third Reich, whose purpose it was to brutalize the nation and fill the people with hate. They marshaled their imperial resources and focused their formidable talents to forge the weapons and other implements of conquest that spread the German terror. They were the warp and woof of the dark mantle of death that settled over Europe. This dark and terrible story offers a lesson for our own perilous moment—in a nation that too often treats moneymaking as the highest value and an easy justification for terrible deeds. The truth of corporate support for the Nazis, Jeffreys writes, has “much to tell us about the fallibility and failings of humankind and the way a nation gave up its soul. More directly, though, it contains a clear warning about the risks inherent in any close relationship between business and state and what can go wrong when political objectives and the pursuit of profit become dangerously entwined.” This history has been on my mind as we witness a growing number of corporations and wealthy Americans deciding to serve the interests of a corrupt and criminal White House occupant. To support a man dedicated to exploiting his power and position to enrich himself, enrich his cronies and seek retribution against his perceived enemies. To support a man bent on consolidating dictatorial power by spreading hatred, fear and violence and building a police state. To support a man who trashes the Constitution, rejects the American democratic project—and will do anything to stay out of jail. I’m not about to make a leap from the mass horrors of Nazi Germany to the demolition of the East Wing of our White House. Nor would I suggest that the expanding military occupation of Democratic-led cities and a brutal federalized police state necessarily leads to atrocities on the scale witnessed during WWII and the Holocaust. But we must remember that a weak and broken man like Donald Trump cannot succeed without the support of rich and powerful enablers. From the feckless and compliant Republican Congress to the billionaires and corporate executives, money is just as essential to his success as obedience. And rather than facing a chorus of “no” from these people, many have chosen to say “yes” to him by handing over tens of millions of dollars. This has been an ongoing reality since his inauguration on Jan. 20, which was funded by the corporate elite who proudly stood behind him in the rotunda of our nation’s Capitol. But it came into fresh focus again yesterday when the White House released the names of 37 corporations and rich donors whose dollars are being used to strip away the history and memories of our White House to make way for Trump’s enormous Mar-a-Lago-style ballroom which will dwarf the People’s House. While specific dollar amounts were not noted, the list includes Altria Group, Amazon, Apple, Booz Allen Hamilton, Caterpillar, Coinbase, Comcast, J. Pepe and Emilia Fanjul, Hard Rock International, Google, HP, Lockheed Martin, Meta, Micron, Microsoft, NextEra Energy, Palantir, Ripple, Reynolds American, T-Mobile, Tether America, Union Pacific Railroad, Adelson Family Foundation, Stefan E. Brodie, Betty Wold Johnson Foundation, Charles and Marissa Cascarilla, Edward and Shari Glazer, Harold Hamm, Benjamin Leon Jr., The Lutnick Family, The Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation, Stephen A. Schwarzmann, Konstantin Sokolov, Kelly Loeffler and Jeff Sprecher, Paolo Tiramani and Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. This list includes tech and AI giants, arms manufacturers, crypto financiers and wealthy individuals committed to funding Trump’s grotesque abuse of our history, traditions, values and democratic processes. While he has demolished the East Wing without explicit official approvals and with indifference to the will of the people, their money gives him cover and support. Their money tells him that he can continue to act as he sees fit. “He is the builder in chief,” his lead propagandist Karoline Leavitt proudly said yesterday on Fox News. “In large part, he was reelected back to this People’s House because he is good at building things. He has done it his entire life, his entire career.” Get it? Rather than lowering the price of eggs, making healthcare more affordable or making life more livable, Trump was reelected to build monuments to his ego. Trump initially said this billionaires’ ballroom would cost $200 million; now he says it will cost $300 million, a sum he spouted without explaining how all that money is being raised or spent. (This along with lying that he wouldn’t “touch” the now gone East Wing.) Reportedly, the payments are being managed by the Trust for the National Mall, a non-profit that works with the National Park Service. Make no mistake: Beneath the pseudo-legitimacy of these organizations is a coordinated campaign to channel corporate money and support for Donald Trump. For example: The BBC reported that, according to court documents, YouTube is paying $22 million as part of its legal settlement of Trump’s lawsuit over the platform’s suspension of his account in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection. This is where we are: The Supreme Court won’t say no to Trump’s unfettered demolition. The Republicans in the House and Senate won’t question any of his lawlessness or abuse of power. Too many corporations and billionaires won’t say no when he demands more money. All this convinces Trump to keep going. We’ve seen this story before. Consider the words in Leo Tolstoy’s last novel, Hadji Murat, published posthumously in 1912: The constant, obvious flattery, contrary to all evidence, of the people around him [Tsar Nicholas I] had brought him to the point that he no longer saw his contradictions, no longer conformed his actions and words to reality, logic, or even simple common sense, but was fully convinced that all his orders, however senseless, unjust, and inconsistent with each other, became sensible, just, and consistent with each other only because he gave them. Let me leave you with some images from the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Winter Palace and home of Tsar Nicholas II and his family before they were executed. The gaudy rooms are laden with gold, so much gold and ostentatious displays of wealth that it’s not hard to see how everyday Russians struggling to survive decided they had had enough with their country’s extreme inequality. (Photos from the Russian tsar's winter palace via Getty Images.) Donald Trump has plenty of reasons to assume that his depraved reign will have no end. But there comes a point when people decide they have had enough and seek the removal of leaders who care only for themselves. No regime based on violence and cruelty can survive once the people decide they’ve had enough. Several signs at the No Kings protests referenced this point by quoting Frederick Douglass: “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will…The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” The billionaires and corporate giants may think they are securing their fortunes and fate. But history reminds us that capitulating to a tyrant to get what you want is ultimately a losing proposition. Becoming a paid subscriber to America, America—for $50 a year or just $5 a month—helps sustain our work, keeps nearly all the content free for everyone and gives you full access to our dynamic community conversations. It also represents your commitment to fearless and independent journalism. JUST A FEW OF COMMENTS: Spectacular column tonight, Steven. I recently read the whole of Robert Jackson's opening remarks at Nuremberg. (Jackson was given 'sabbatical' from his seat on the Supreme Court to lead the trials, at which General Taylor spoke a year later. ). Jackson said this: "What makes this inquest significant is that these prisoners represent sinister influences that will lurk in the world long after their bodies have returned to dust. We will show them to be living symbols of racial hatreds, of terrorism and violence, and of the arrogance and cruelty of power." --Justice Robert Jackson, opening remarks at Nurenburg, Germany, November 21, 1945. I am ordering Jeffreys' book. Also worth reading as a window into our own time: Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem, in which she reflects on "the banality of evil." Not the upper tier with the enormous wealth, but the army of followers whose orders are to obey, and who do so mindlessly. Good thought on reading Hannah Arendt. Thank you for this information Jill. Excerpt: ..”We will show them to be living symbols of racial hatreds, of terrorism and violence, and of the arrogance and cruelty of power." --Justice Robert Jackson, opening remarks at Nurenburg, Germany, November 21, 1945.” (Hatreds Violence Cruelty of power) Thank You Steven ..No we can't say that what happened in Germany and Europe WW ll is the same as what is happeing in America. But what is happening to us is a screaming nightmare. His blowing up the boats makes him a murderer. His cruelty to migrants is unbearable. Tearing down the East Wing of the WH has finally pushed me over the edge. The goldleaf in the Oval Office looks like something you buy in the dollar store for party decorations.. The patio with the tables and umbrellas is strait out of Mar-a-Lago .Now the ballroom..Maybe he plans to rename the WH Mar-a-Lago ll . If he builds Arc de Trump across from the Lincoln memorial will that be fine with all of his supporters. If we don't do an economic boycott I don't see anything changing, The only thing they understand is money and loss of it. All of us seniors can stay home. No shopping online or in the stores no movies no theater no eating out. The rest of the working population that can stay home should .. We cannot count on SCOTUS or the Congress or the Senate ..My heart can't take much more of this. lost in america. The historian Heather Cox Richardson sees similarities to the so-called Gilded Age when the uber-wealthy put great pressure on democratic norms and functions. A correction followed, the progressive era of Teddy Roosevelt, if I’ve got this right. The scale of the current onslaught powered by particularly virulent personalities, gives our time a menace well-described by Prof. Beschloss. I pray for the day we have our own Nuremberg trials, and we will. The best way to impact the madness that is this POTUS and his sycophants is to hit them in their pockets. And the only way to do that is with a massive, all encompassing GENERAL STRIKE. They’ve already shut down our federal government it is past time that we shut down the greedy usurpers of power. Let’s not do another NoKings March. Please let’s do a GENERAL STRIKE and bring all of these corporate masters to heel. It’s worked in other countries. It can work here. Yes, but it needs to be coordinated to have any impact. Other countries have worker protections that the US, as usual, does not have. Everyone would have to assess their own level of risk if they were to walk off their job. BUT, everyone can stop spending their hard earned money on things they don't need. It makes me sick to think how well Apple is doing with it's 177th(?) iPhone. If having the latest iPhone is more important than living in a country where you can be critical of the current regime, the Thought Police are gearing up. Thank you for this excellent essay, Steven. When I read through the list of "donors" to the ballroom fund yesterday, I wondered (as I have under other circumstances) just how the money was travelling from billionaire's pockets into Trump's, and you've answered the question. Let us not forget to notice that in giving millions to a "non-profit" the wealthy and their corporations get to write all that off on their taxes. This is a good example of how it is that year after year after year these people and corporations pay virtually nothing in taxes. Their palm-greasing is thus at taxpayers expense. They get the benefits of privilege, influence AND tax deductions. I hope I live long enough to see them face trial for their crimes. Such an important series of historic parallels. I hope with all my heart and soul that we the people rise to the occasion soon and call en masse for justice against this mad king and his evil enablers. Each day, and every grotesque abuse of power, every act of blatant, wanton greed further damages our democracy and our collective identity as a nation of laws. It will only end when all of us say it must end. Thank you Mr. Beschloss for this history lesson and reminders of past atrocities. The gutting of the East Wing of 'our house' was so painful as the memories created there are gone. I hope the 'yes' men and women who sponsored this unnecessary and unlawful ballroom will be tainted forever in our country's history. Brilliant as always, Steven. I have been wondering for some time when the weight of the corruption will cause the entire groaning machinery of destruction to implode; when the transfer of wealth from the workers to the rich can no longer be sustained. I sense a catastrophe coming - and the only one that will impact on these foul enablers of evil, is a financial catastrophe. I have heard some commentators say that economic disengagement is the only real option to end this nightmare. Perhaps if those who stoke the engines refuse to do it any longer, we can have a future. But it will be unbelievably damaging and cause immense pain. What do you think? But consider that this has been going on since at least the Reagan administration. "Economic disengagement", or a general strike, isn't going to undo Citizens United or reform (or re-form) the Supreme Court. It's not going to cure the systemic racism that helped bring about Trump I and Trump II. Our current emergency was decades in the making. A general strike is like putting a Band-Aid on a gaping wound that requires more serious treatment. Hard to disagree. But need to start somewhere - what do you think might help make progress? What will help make progress is gaining control over our corrupt education system that did this to us by eliminating the called-to-teach teachers who are the soul of our nation. Democracy must be taught. They made sure it wasn’t anymore and people would disrespect their teachers to the point of making them voiceless so you wouldn’t listen to the teachers trying to report administrative wrongdoing. Teacher whistleblowers have been trying to tell you this at WhiteChalkCrime.com and EndTeacherAbuse.org since 2002. We need to learn from these teachers and run for school boards since boards control our schools. We’ve foolishly trusted our administrators when so many of them are stealing democracy from us. This wouldn’t be a total solution but it would be a solid start for regaining democracy that we have the power to do. Plus all we need is one leader who’ll look into what fascists did to our schools and help these devoted teachers restore authentic schools, and we’d unite the good people on both sides with that issue. People care about their schools and don’t want school shootings. The devoted teachers know why there are school shootings but are voiceless. It’s been my mission to teach people about this since 1995 There is a path for democracy lovers. It’s hidden. But we can open it up and build a strong coalition back to power. Maybe your very best, sir -- because you've called attention to the $$$ behind Trump and his administration. This administration couldn't pass muster as a middle-school "model U.S. government." Trump himself is barely compos mentis. None of this would be happening without the active encouragement of big corporations and the mega-wealthy. It's never been clearer that they're the unelected fourth branch of government. This country does have a tradition of resistance to economic power. That's a big part of what the Civil War was about, remember? And the Progressive Era and, later, the New Deal were a reaction to the penchant of Big Money for crashing the economy again and again. The road to Trump goes back at least to the Reagan administration. Are we the people finally ready to acknowledge that economic power can and will eat democracy alive if given half a chance? Steven, you’re doing a wonderful job of teaching history. We have had two disappointing parties so some people thought anything else would be the answer and had to learn the hard way that you must learn history and let it be your guide for solving problems. Although they’re comforting to us, we need to forward these history lessons to the people who need them the most—Trump supporters. Trump’s antics are going to turn people off to him while educating people will turn people onto reality. His enablers should burn. As a former history teacher in high school, I am devastated that SCOTUS and Congress are so complicit. Steven! Heartrending words and timely comparisons, with the eventuality and actuality of accountability in the past —- succeeding -Thank you 💙🇺🇸💙 Excerpt: “August of 1947, General Telford Taylor, a chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials: “… In this arrogant and supremely criminal adventure, the defendants were eager and leading participants. They joined in stamping out the flame of liberty, and in subjecting the German people to the monstrous, grinding tyranny of the Third Reich, whose purpose it was to brutalize the nation and fill the people with hate. They marshaled their imperial resources and focused their formidable talents to forge the weapons and other implements of conquest that spread the German terror. They were the warp and woof of the dark mantle of death that settled over Europe”… //- Repeat: (…whose purpose it was to brutalize the nation and fill the people with hate.) SHAME on every one of these "tech and AI giants, arms manufacturers, crypto financiers and wealthy individuals committed to funding Trump’s grotesque abuse of our history, traditions, values and democratic processes." Every last penny of their combined wealth is outweighed by the single tear of a solitary child. As you have so eloquently pointed out, Steven, a nation besotted, above all else, with the accumulation of wealth is bound to fail. The fact of the matter is that our system of unfettered capitalism stands in direct contradiction to human welfare and happiness. As I keep repeating, if we are to learn anything from our current debacle, may it be to understand that we need to reinvent ourselves and change course dramatically. Chaucer said it best: "Radix omnium malorum cupiditas est." (The root of all evil is greed.) A recent reputable poll found that 56% of respondents agreed that Trump was acting like a dictator and they didn’t like it. I’m sorry I can’t remember the pollsters but the findings brought me joy. It’s a start, and we must build on it, begin to demand specific asks like no masks, warrants and due process. Miller and ICE are no different than Nazi Germany, intent on indiscriminately casting out and harming brown people. The Tech and corporate sector must be broken up, regulated and held to account. A righteous accountability is all the regime’s fate. I will ask for a front seat at the trials. Thank you Steven for reminding us of the horrors of the Nazis and the Holocaust. There are so many parallels to what Trump and his administration are doing. Like one of the commenters said “ my heart can’t take this “. I will add the cruelty, greed and inhumanity and cult are just too much. So is the turning away and burying heads in the sand. Thank you. Thank you, Steven. The vast retinue of greedy collaborators bending the need to Trump has depressed me even more than the horrific antics of Trump himself. All these men of great wealth and power had a chance to be a hero and they threw it away for a few extra bucks. They will all live in infamy. How much longer will the American people put up with this ignorance, and more importantly, the arrogance of our illustrious do-nothing MAGA Congressmen and Senators who are fully capable, since they have control of all three branches of our government, to end the closure? When will the American people wake up to the fact that Trump is already a dictator. He thinks he can do anything, and has been. What will be the final act that will wake up the citizens, a majority of whom say that he is not what they want. A 39% approval rating is not good, yet he is ruling TODAY as a dictator. Has Congress sent Argentina $50B? Has Congress approved any of the tariffs? Are farmers and ranchers losing their farms and ranches because of his unilateral decisions? Every morning I turn on the news thinking this will be the day that a coup has started. How much longer must I wait? An absolutely superb piece - thanks Steven. The comparison of the US today - a country who has worshipped the rich and been brainwashed into glorification of money at the same time ignoring the moral reverence of religion - will soon mimic Nazi Germany. The internment camps are comparable to Nazi concentration camps. The bigotry against Jews in Europe is no different than Trumps' discrimination against Blacks and Browns across our nation - a fanaticism that has resulted in a genocide in Africa. NPR "estimated that 14 million lives could be lost due to Trump aid cuts." His demolition of the White House - is nothing more than vandalism - a desecration of American history. Just like when he remarked that "Arlington National Cemetery would make a great golf course." Our country has come a long way from the Founding Father's morality and principles - ethics and righteousness were sold out at garage sale prices by the same people - Trump included - who think that saying "Fuck You" is comical and entertaining. The French used guillotines, we used the Nuremberg trials to hold the Nazis accountable. We need a Presidential Crimes Commission headed by prosecutors with integrity and belief in democracy. I have two suggestions for those prosecutors, Glenn Kirschner, and Kevin Flynn. Both have served this country in excess of 30 years as federal prosecutors with distinction and honor. Thank you for your insight & many comments of posters. As a consequence of issues surrounding the ORANGE TURD, I began reviewing the NUREMBERG TRIALS for many reasons - arming & supporting GENOCIDE in GAZA without criticism? ISRAEL blockaiding FOOD & AID? Bombing boats in violation of INTERNATIONAL LAW? Covering up INTERNATIONAL CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING for  WEALTHY PEDOPHILES? Not prosecuting BANKS that failed to report & could have prevented/stopped it? ICE GESTAPO ABUSE, ASSAULTS, LIES, DISAPPEARING PEOPLE, CONCENTRATION CAMPS & 170 AMERICAN CITIZEN HELD? The comments revealed by the YOUNG REPUBLICANS revealed the unspoken GOP ROT.  As you know, NAZIS kept meticulous records of the atrocities that were not available until the collapse of the former SOVIET UNION.  Those accounts were translated and reported.  Bless those who endured translating such HORRIFIC records.  I have a first edition of BETRAYAL - the story of KURT WALDHEIM's appointed to UN Secretary General - only got as far as the NAZIS loadinng JEWS onto a boat destined for GAS CHAMBERS.  AIPAC, a well funded ANTI-DEMOCRACY organization continues to attack candidates who dare sspeak ill of ISRAEL.  Trump & MAGA attack condemnation of GAZA GENOCIDE - pretending it's support of terrorism.  Lots of complicity!  Interesting times to live in!