MAGA as a FOURTH REICH, in and of itself, has been a fear, however, Trump did not claim it until 2024, but it was always important to take such rhetoric as serious, as Trump (MAGA administration) is doing everything in its power to make this the reality, but the fear has been around for a while.
According to experts, historians, and political professionals as reported (2022) in the Philadelphia Tribune, in a report entitled It's important to take those calling for a 'Fourth Reich' seriously, they state that;
Since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Americans have become increasingly concerned about the threat posed by fascist groups to the country's democratic order. Meanwhile, one of the first countries to go fascist last century — Germany — is facing its own internal right-wing threat, as was made clear last week when German police arrested more than two dozen right-wing extremists plotting to violently overthrow the government. As odd as it may sound, both countries may be facing the same threat — the prospect of a "Fourth Reich…".
Similar fears have recently been expressed in the United States. Since 2016, left-liberal commentators have voiced the fear that Trumpism threatens to give rise to a Fourth Reich in the United States. In pop culture the streaming series "Hunters," starring Al Pacino, explores the premise of American neo-Nazis in the 1970s plotting to create a Fourth Reich in America.
The proliferation of references to a Fourth Reich is hardly new, though it is newly intense and widespread. Originally, the concept was coined by opponents of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich, who sought to herald the vision of a fourth successor Reich as a democratic alternative to Nazism.
After World War II, however, the concept was reappropriated by unrepentant Nazis who hoped to recreate the authoritarian spirit of the Third Reich. Simultaneously, Western democracies used the concept of a Fourth Reich in admonitory fashion to warn against the possible postwar resurgence of Nazism. This history shows why it is critical to take those actors who seek to bring about a Fourth Reich seriously….
The idea of a "Fourth Reich" also serves as a rallying cry for the far right beyond Germany. Indeed, it exists in the United States as well…many white supremacist and neo-Nazi activists have embraced it. In August 2017, an African-American church in Dumfries, Virginia, was vandalized with racist signs, including one that read "the Fourth Reich."
Around the same time, right-wing radicals produced threatening social media posts with messages such as "Donald Trump is Just the Opening Act. Yes, We Will Live to see a Fourth Reich…(The Philadelphia Tribune, December 16, 2022, report entitled It's important to take those calling for a 'Fourth Reich' seriously, retrieved from https://www.phillytrib.com/commentary/its-important-to-take-those-calling-for-a-fourth-reich-seriously/article_cceb0f80-866f-54ba-aab1-aa2816658d23.html)”.
Prior to this post, Trump hadn’t directly connected himself as a “reich” it wasn’t until May 20, 2024, that he posted the video on his Truth Social website, of his presidency being the “United Reich”.
THE FOURTH REICH IS NOT A BAD DREAM ITS REAL
According to the opinion of experts and historians, as reported in MSN News (2025), in an op-ed report entitled A Fourth Reich? It’s Not Just a Bad Dream, it states that;
According to historians, it took Adolf Hitler 53 days to transform the Weimar Republic into the Third Reich, replacing that feckless democracy with the mother of all modern dictatorships.
In a recent piece for The Atlantic, Timothy W. Ryback, director of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation in The Hague, clocks it at “one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours, and 40 minutes.”
Ryback’s precision (leaving aside a minor quibble about the length of the month) put me in mind of the record books — Usain Bolt, Katie Ledecky, Joe DiMaggio — and the question of how long it may take Donald Trump.
Of course the historical record is teeming with dictators who, their coups having succeeded, crossed the Finish Line in hours, if not minutes….
Parallels and Distinctions
While the Weimar constitution was hardly a fair copy of our own remarkable document, and while the Weimar Republic was a sapling compared to our full-grown (overgrown?) oak, Trump’s challenge has a great deal in common with Hitler’s.
Both came into office in a sharply divided country, with a “mandate” that existed in their own minds, not in reality. Both had essentially boundless ambitions, knew with a fair amount of precision what stood in their way, had plans in hand for neutering those impediments, and were gifted with an improvisatory flair for dealing with setbacks.
The machinations that took Hitler through the minefield of his 53 days are recounted in detail in a whole library shelf of books and articles; I highly recommend Ryback’s, cited above, for a relatively succinct summary.
There are a few key points of special relevance to the perils facing our own democracy.
There were those who — even in early 1933, when Hitler was still getting his ducks lined up — grasped the disaster to come, some with uncanny specificity. But the vast majority, not just in Germany but across the globe, continued to pursue normal, often enthusiastic, relations with the Third Reich. Hitler hosted the 1936 Olympics, the first instance of sportswashing, and still the most egregious….
The report goes on to state that;
Waking Up and Realizing It’s All Real
Those of us who predicted this onslaught — while the media was busy normalizing Trump and his intentions throughout 2024 — are seeing our worst fears realized. A sampler of this week’s headlines: “The Purge: Wrecking the Civil Service”; “Trump and Musk Are Strangling the Government”; “Where Will It End?”; “Reverse D-Day”; “Last Chance To Stop a Dictatorship”; “The Coup d’État Has Begun”; “Elon Musk Has Broken the Constitutional Order”; “Trump’s Gut-It-All Plan”; “Impeach Him: We Are Watching a Global Superpower Commit Suicide…”.
The report further states that;
Unlike in 2017, when they hit the ground stumbling, this time Trump and his minions have done their homework, having written much of it down in the menacing Project 2025, and have come roaring out of the gate with a terrifying, flood-the-zone intensity….
Decades ago, Republican operative extraordinaire Karl Rove talked up a “permanent Republican majority” and “perpetual rule.” A few weeks ago, Trump appeared to attribute his Pennsylvania “landslide” to the fact that Musk “knows those computers better than anybody, all those computers, those vote counting computers.”
I’ll have a good deal more on that in a soon-to-be-published forensic analysis of Election 2024, but suffice it to say that current levels of security fall far short of guaranteeing legitimate elections going forward, and there is no sign of that changing for the better….
The report goes on to state that;
How will Trump — who in 2020 was itching to shoot Black Lives Matter demonstrators “in the legs” — respond? Will he invoke the Insurrection Act, turn the military on protesters? Will the troops so deployed shoot if provoked? Will someone die? Will that lead to bigger, angrier demonstrations, more shooting, more deaths? Where will that escalation end up? Will we enter into what, a year ago, I first referred to as “the dictator’s doom loop?”
…While there is little question that much of MAGA governance oozes shoddiness, the conclusion that that makes it somehow less dangerous derives, I’m afraid, from a solidly meritocratic world view.
And that world view is precisely what the MAGAs have set out to smash….
Competence, long years of devotion, study, training are, in their view, not merely unnecessary, but dangerous hallmarks of the far-left lunatic deep state. “Move fast and break things” is, with the merger of Tech Bro and MAGA, the new modus operandi, to be prized and flaunted in Washington and beyond. Who needs an advanced degree in bioengineering or theoretical physics when you can just do your own research by checking out podcasts, websites, and influencers your Uncle MAGA recommends?
The report concludes to state that;
If the courts fail, it’s up to the public — or rather that segment of the public not belonging to the Trump cult and willing to put everything, from their convenience to their lives, on the line to save our democracy.
Those patriots ready and able to do so should expect to be met with force.
At one point, voting would have been enough. One way or another, America failed that test. Now it’s likely to take more, much more. It will take all of us.
A Fourth Reich beckons. And there are no guarantees. This is not a movie…(MSN News, February 8, 2025, report entitled A Fourth Reich? It’s Not Just A Bad Dream, retrieved from https://www.msn.com/en-us/society-culture-and-history/history/a-fourth-reich-it-s-not-just-a-bad-dream/ar-AA1yEuPq).
So as we surmise MAGA is the FOURTH REICH (AKA THE UNIFIED REICH) the New Nazi government, and Donald Trump is the New Hitler.