The Hitler Financiers Went Largely Unpunished
Was there a point that Fritz Thyssen, Alfred Krupp, Gustav Krupp, Albert Voegler, Emil Kirdorf, Hjalmar Schacht, Kurt Schmitt, Henry Ford, Carl Krauch, Hermann Schmitz, Baron August von Finck, Max Ilgner, Fritz ter Meer, Günther Quandt, Friedrich Flick and the rest of the wealthy men who underwrote the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party, realized they had made a big error? Some did abandon the Nazi cause, like Thyssen; others stuck with Hitler ’til the end.
Early this morning, Rebecca O’Brien reported that the anti-Trump millionaires and billionaires are in despair. Many of them had financed his earlier bids for power but have recognized how mistaken they were and have put millions of dollars into stopping him by financing other candidates, even Trump-like Meatball Ron DeSantis. Many of these wealthy Republicans feel that Trump’s “nomination would be a disaster for our party and our country” and there’s a “growing sense of urgency about the state of the GOP presidential primary race.”
Trump utter domination of the polls, national and state by state, “has left major Republican donors— whose desires have increasingly diverged from those of conservative voters— grappling with the reality that the tens of millions of dollars they have spent to try to stop the former president, fearing he poses a mortal threat to their party and the country, may already be a sunk cost. Interviews with more than a dozen Republican donors and their allies revealed hand-wringing, magical thinking, calls to arms and, for some, fatalism. Several of them did not want to be identified by name out of a fear of political repercussions or a desire to stay in the good graces of any eventual Republican nominee, including Trump.” Some are delusional— still optimist that Trump can be stopped.
Some donors have backed Trump’s rivals despite believing that he is unbeatable in the primaries. These donors are banking, in part, on the chance that Trump will eventually drop out of the race because of his legal troubles, a health scare or some other personal or political calculation.
…Privately, many donors said that the primary contest so far— especially the first Republican debate last month, in which Trump did not take part— had felt like a dress rehearsal for a play that would never happen. One donor’s political adviser called it “the kids’ table.”
…Large-dollar Republican donors, even those who enthusiastically or reluctantly backed Trump in 2016 and 2020, have made no secret of their wish to move on in 2024.
Some big donors have stuck with Trump, though not nearly as many as in past cycles, at least not so far— a super PAC backing Trump has reported just 25 contributions of $100,000 or more. They include $2 million from the casino magnate Phil Ruffin and $1 million from the former real estate developer Charles Kushner, the father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Trump pardoned the elder Kushner on his way out of office.
Major donors, particularly those in the tier just below the billionaire power players, have seen their influence wane in recent elections, a trend inextricably bound up in Trump’s continued hold on Republican voters. The explosive growth of small-dollar contributions— a phenomenon that, on the Republican side, has overwhelmingly favored Trump— reflects a widening disconnect between voters’ sympathies and the interests of big donors.
The conservative commentator Bill Kristol, who has become a pariah in his party over his longstanding opposition to Trump, said he told donors and their advisers at the beginning of the year that if they were serious about defeating Trump, they had to spend money in a concerted effort to persuade Republican voters that he should not be the nominee.
The hope was that, by Labor Day, Trump’s poll numbers would be in the 30s, Kristol explained. Instead, he said, “they’ve done nothing, and Trump is at 50 percent.”
Kristol said he was not sure if donors had a kind of “learned helplessness,” or if they were just wary of offending Trump and his supporters. “I think, ultimately, they tell themselves they could live with him,” he said.
“We know what a world would look like if real conservative elites really decided they wanted to get rid of Donald Trump,” Kristol said. “And that’s not the world we are living in.”
If there was any hope among big donors that the various investigations into Trump would undermine his popular support, such dreams have faded. Each successive indictment— four since late March— has brought waves of financial contributions and new energy to his poll numbers.
Some donors expressed incredulity that Trump would be able to run for president while fighting off the charges. He faces a busy calendar of trials next year that is likely to grow only more complex.
“I don’t see how he’s going to deal with these huge legal problems,” said the Long Island-based metals magnate Andy Sabin, who is backing Scott. “I don’t really care about his numbers. I think he’s got enough other stuff going on. All of these trials start— who knows? We are in uncharted territory.”
Sabin conceded that Trump had a “very solid base,” adding that he would “almost have to murder somebody” for people to turn on him. “People think he’s God.”
Many major donors, even those who believe Trump committed crimes and who think his actions surrounding Jan. 6, 2021, were abhorrent, said they believed the indictments were politically motivated. Some also suggested that the indictments had temporarily inflated his poll numbers, by keeping him in the news and fueling voter outrage on his behalf.
“I fundamentally believe Trump’s numbers are artificial,” said Jay Zeidman, a Texas-based health care investor and major fund-raiser for Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. “I’m not saying they are making them up— I don’t think there’s real strength behind those numbers.”
He continued: “I think you have to be patient, and let the gravity of the situation he’s in take hold. This election is not about vindicating one man. This is not a referendum on Trump.”
Zeidman, like others, said he believed Trump would lose the presidential race and drag down Republican candidates for Senate and the House. “I believe that Republican primary voters need to understand the opportunity they have to win a very winnable presidential election.”
Dan Eberhart, a private equity and energy executive who is also backing DeSantis, said that he expected Trump’s legal troubles to weigh him down, and that he believed most voters were looking for a second choice.
“By the time Super Tuesday comes around, Trump is going to have been beaten in Iowa, and the dam is going to burst,” he predicted. “Once someone else is viable, I think you’re going to see him quickly melt.”
Then, Eberhart said, donors who have not committed to a candidate will come out of the woodwork: “They are actively holding their breath, wanting a solution to Trump but not knowing what it is.”
As some donors have cast about for a late entrant to the race who could challenge Trump, the name that comes up most often is Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia.
Youngkin’s not going to save them. The MAGAts will never accept him and he knows if he jumps in against Trump, it will ruin his career in the MAGAfied Republican Party.
Most of the donors are like Bill Bean, and garden variety rich Indiana donor who backs Pence. O’Brien noted that he had “backed Trump’s re-election campaign in 2020, and supported the policy decisions he made as president. ‘But I would like to see us move forward,’ he said. ‘I want to look at the future in a positive way. I hear that a lot more than maybe the poll numbers show.’”
In the German presidential election of 1932, conservative incumbent Paul von Hindenburg won the runoff with 19,359,983 votes (53.05%) to Hitler’s 13,418,57 (36.77%). Before the runoff the Des Moines Register warned that “If Hitler wins in April the future of the nation and even of Europe to a great extent is uncertain... [the Nazis'] extremist policies might easily lead to the gravest international complications.” Less than a year after von Hindenburg victory he handed the government over to Hitler, who almost immediately tore up the constitution and made himself dictator, 2 months later.
Wondering what happened to those billionaires who financed the rise of Hitler and Naziism? My friend David De Jong wrote a book about it, Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany's Wealthiest Dynasties. It’s worth watching this video from last month that David is part of.
(FORD MOTORS). Those who know of the company’s controversial past will undoubtedly be aware of Ford’s relationship with the Nazis.
For example, Henry Ford never shied away from his relationship with Hitler or downplayed the praise he received.
Henry Ford received honors, and Hitler even maintained a portrait of Henry, Decades later, it was discovered Ford Motor factories were exploiting enslaved Russians to work in their factories (specifically Cologne). the Rockefeller Foundation, started by Chase’s founder JD Rockefeller, helped the Nazis by funding their eugenics research. Chase went out of its way to aid the Nazis by targeting Jewish accounts and refugees fleeing the Nazi regime.
As a result, French Jews had their accounts frozen, and millions of marks were…
'Many of these wealthy Republicans feel that Trump’s “nomination would be a disaster for our party and our country" '
It should still be worth noting that those rich NAZI party supporters are not afraid that democracy will end or the republic will be destroyed. Their only goal is for some NAZI to win the election. They would just prefer it not be trump. They apparently think trump being the nom will be a drag on the PARTY in the election. Personally, I don't think that's true. So far, trump has only risen in polls with each legal entanglement. At present, he's beating your hapless pathetic biden. You will likely see the drag be on your side.
It's the same…