The Hitler trial’s lessons in the Trump era

The Nazi leader used the court to play victim and espouse his fascist beliefs. A decade later, he would be chancellor of Germany. Now, Donald Trump’s trials offer him a similar platform in the US

Just as American conservatives reject comparisons of Trumpism and fascism, some historians argue that the fate of the Weimar Republic, however fascinating, offers few lessons for navigating the current political tumult in the United States. Photo: AP/Frank Franklin II

On April 1, 1924, Adolf Hitler should have been terrified. 

Four-and-a-half months earlier, the Nazi leader had led a failed coup d’état in Munich, the Bavarian capital. Inspired by the Italian Fascist Benito Mussolini, Hitler had planned to march his supporters on to Berlin, where they would destroy the democratic Weimar Republic.