I Alone Can Fix It" portrays a man who put himself before his country. It is packed with hair-raising revelations about the 45th president’s mishandling of everything from the coronavirus pandemic (he has no regrets) to racial justice protests (his only regret is not unleashing the active-duty military), but it made the most headlines with its account of America’s flirtation with fascism.
The key figure was Gen Mark Milley who, as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, had the monumentally important job of keeping the military out of politics. He compared Trump’s rhetoric to Adolf Hitler’s during his rise to power in Germany. "This is a Reichstag moment," he told aides, referring to the 1933 fire at the German parliament which the Nazis used as a pretext to consolidate power. "The gospel of the Führer."
Journalists are usually discouraged from making such comparisons. And yet here was America’s highest-ranking military officer doing just that. But even before 2020, Trump had long been compared to autocrats around the world because of his mass rallies, willingness to promote false propaganda, harsh crackdowns on political protesters, contempt for media freedom, scapegoating of minorities, admiration for other strongmen and penchant for hiring family members and putting his name on buildings.
I've ordered my copy of "I Alone Can Fix It". It'll look great on the bookshelf as a companion volume on the far right of "Mein Kampf"!
P.S. Listen to ABC Radio National's interview with the author here.
