Chicago Saw This Con Coming a Mile Away

By Jericho Jake Slade, Occupy25.com

Chicago’s got a sixth sense for political bull. It comes from decades of mayors who thought they were pharaohs and aldermen who couldn’t tell the difference between public office and personal storage units. So when folks pretend Trump isn’t borrowing from Hitler’s old manual, I gotta ask: you reading history, or just the menu at the Rainbow Grill?

Crack open the Chicago newspapers from the early ’30s. Back then, the Tribune was warning readers about some loudmouthed Austrian with a bad mustache who kept calling opponents “traitors” and minorities “invaders” (Chicago Daily Tribune, 1933). Swap the mustache for a clown wig and you’ve got the 2025 version, right down to the “enemy of the people” chant (Trump, 2024). History doesn’t repeat — it just recycles villains like a cheap radio jingle.

Royko used to say the city can spot a fraud before he hits the curb. And looking at Hitler’s playbook? Trump’s dog-eared it. Hitler created crises, then demanded extraordinary powers to “restore order” (Evans, 2004). Trump pulls the same stunt — border chaos, protest panic, crime hysteria — all to sell himself as America’s last bouncer at the democracy bar.

Then there’s loyalty. Chicago ward politics taught us what blind loyalty looks like — but Hitler industrialized it. Judges, teachers, cops, bureaucrats — all expected to kneel on command (Kershaw, 1999). Trump’s 2025 push to purge “disloyal” civil servants? Buddy, that’s not draining the swamp. That’s filling it with piranhas in MAGA hats (Smith, 2025).

And the martyr routine — oh, Hitler loved that bit. Persecuted genius, misunderstood visionary, eternal victim of the evil “others” (Friedländer, 2007). Trump’s version? Same script, lazier delivery. Instead of Wagnerian theatrics, we get whining on Truth Social and fundraising emails at 3 a.m.

But here’s the Chicago truth the national pundits keep missing: Pointing out the parallels isn’t prophecy — it’s prevention. It’s a warning, not a horoscope.

Hitler didn’t seize power because his playbook was genius. He succeeded because people shrugged and said, “Eh, it’ll blow over.” Chicago knows better. We’ve lived through enough crooked bosses to know that apathy is how you lose a city, a country, a democracy.

If Trump wants to run Hitler’s plays, that’s on him. Whether he scores is on us.

Chicago’s history teaches one thing better than any civics class: We don’t let the bullies write the ending. Not in this town. Not in this century.

Jericho Jake Slade signs off, coffee in one hand, headline in the other, yelling at the ghosts of City Hall.

APA References

Chicago Daily Tribune. (1933, March 5). Reichstag fire intensifies German crisis. Chicago Daily Tribune Archives.

Evans, R. J. (2004). The coming of the Third Reich. Penguin Books.

Friedländer, S. (2007). The years of extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939–1945. HarperCollins.

Kershaw, I. (1999). Hitler: 1889–1936 Hubris. W. W. Norton & Company.

Smith, J. (2025). The loyalty purge: How Trump reshaped the federal workforce. Washington Press.

Trump, D. J. (2024). Rally speech transcript: “Enemy of the people” remarks. National Archives of Political Communication.