President Donald Trump was compared to another murderous world dictator on Thursday night as MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews suggested Trump is just like former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un since Trump and Kim “love the parades” where they can serve as the star alongside military demonstrations.
The comparison arose while Matthews and his Hardball Roundtable discussed Trump’s latest blockbuster New York Times interview where the President raved about the crowds he claimed were there to see him at the Eiffel Tower and the immaculate Bastille Day parade he witnessed.
“Well, he seems to derive a lot of strength from these trips abroad. The trip to Saudi Arabia where they certainly treated him like king and they really played to the things that he likes. He really likes the pomp. He likes the military aspects of these. He loved the parade in France,” The Times’s Michael Schmidt argued (who was one of the journalists that interviewed Trump).
Matthews blurted out that Trump “loves parades” and Schimidt agreed, noting out that the President “wants to do one here.”
“He wants Bastille-type parade in D.C., I guess on Pennsylvania Avenue. This is his dream. He’s like an 8-year-old. What do we make of that? ‘I want big parade.’You know, this is really like Kim Jong-un too,” the loony Hardball host added.
Right on cue, Schmidt’s colleague Yamiche Alcindor lashed out at Trump as if she were a pundit instead of a journalist:
I mean, that’s why he’s having all these rallies, right? that’s why he’s going and having all these rallies. That's why he feeds off this idea that people want to love him. He feeds off this idea that I got this big thing that the media told me and all these people told me I wasn’t going to be able to get here. Now that I’m here, I want everyone to praise me.
At the end of the segment, Matthews blurted out that the other comparison: “Look out, Idi Amin!”
Between 2015 and 2017, The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah compared Trump to various African dictators and ISIS, including Amin, Robert Mugabe and Muammar Gadhafi.
MSNBC’s Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski expressed similar sentiments on June 23 days before Trump’s infamous tweet about her appearance. She fretted to her assembled guests that America is country ruled by “a developing dictatorship.”
For Matthews, he has repeatedly linked the Trump family to the Romanovs, in addition to the suggestion that Trump could end up like Italy’s Benito Mussolini in having his son-in-law Jared Kushner murdered like Mussolini did.
Whether it’s Mugabe, Mussolini, or Hugo Chavez, the media won’t stop with the comparisons, all the while lecturing conservatives and Trump supporters about their supposed incivility.
It doesn’t matter to the left that Trump hasn’t rounded up journalists, held public executions, or starved millions: It’s all about creating a narrative that their comrades in The Resistance can cultivate to the point that they view it as fact.
Here’s the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on July 20:
MSNBC’s Hardball
July 20, 2017
7:42 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Trump added that, upon leaving the Eiffel Tower after having dinner with the French president, it “looked like they could have never had a bigger celebration ever in the history of the Eiffel Tower...there were thousands and thousands of people cause they heard we were having dinner.” Well, this morning, a French newspaper pointed out the President seemed to be confusing regular Eiffel Tower tourism with interest in his visit. Well, that's a smack.
(....)
7:47 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: Anyway, in an interview, he talked about how successful Trump's trip to Poland was and he told The Times: “I have had the best reviews on foreign land. So I go to Poland and make a speech. Enemies of mine in the media, enemies of mine are saying it was the greatest speech ever made on foreign soil by a president. I'll saying, man...you saw the reviews I got on that speech.” Michael, I think the Sorbonne speech by Teddy Roosevelt gets a little credit here in his competition. What do we make of this?
MICHAEL SCHMIDT: Well, he seems to derive a lot of strength from these trips abroad. The trip to Saudi Arabia where they certainly treated him like king and they really played to the things that he likes. He really likes the pomp. He likes the military aspects of these. He loved the parade in France.
MATTHEWS: He loves the parades.
SCHMIDT: He loves the parades. He wants to do one here.
MATTHEWS: He wants Bastille-type parade in D.C., I guess on Pennsylvania Avenue. This is his dream. He’s like an 8-year-old. What do we make of that?
SCHMIDT: Correct.
MATTHEWS: I want big parade. You know, this is really like Kim Jong-un too.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: I mean, that’s why he’s having all these rallies, right? that’s why he’s going and having all these rallies. That's why he feeds off this idea that people want to love him. He feeds off this idea that I got this big thing that the media told me and all these people told me I wasn’t going to be able to get here. Now that I’m here, I want everyone to praise me.
(.....)
7:49 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: Look out, Idi Amin!
